Saving All My Women
by Rangerbabe21
Summary: What can Ranger do when Stephanie is taken and the threat that comes in is for all his women: Julie, his mother and sister's too. Where and how can he protect them, when the bad guys can find them where ever they go? Babe HEA
1. Chapter 1 Who's Got My Girl?

Chapter 1 Who's Got My Girl?

A/N: This started out as a short one shot and before I knew it was three chapters long and growing. The story just bloomed in my head, begging to be written. This is my first ever story written for Fanfiction. I love the Stephanie Plum series and have enjoyed it for many years. Reading the books over and over until I got turned onto Fanfiction. I love Fanfiction and always wanted to write a story so I hope you will appreciate my use of the characters. All Spanish is from my basic knowledge and Google Translate.

I know most stories are written from Stephanie's POV. But this story couldn't have been written in anything other than Ranger's POV. So, I hope it works for you.

Not mine, just taking them out to play. ; )

Rated M for violence, adult language and in later chapters smut. Major violence warning in the first chapter. You can skip most of it avoid the part of the story between the *****.

This is a Babe story, not horrible to Joe, he is a minor character, but would be disappointing to cupcake only fans. Spoilers for all twenty-four books.

Please review. Remember this is my first ever story. Half this story is written and being edited. I will post them as they are ready. I was going to wait till it was completely written but feel like reviews will encourage me to get it all done. Thanks.

Ranger POV

Tuesday, April 12. 19:00

It was just another Tuesday evening at RangeMan, my private security company, and I climbed up the stairs in my company embroidered black t-shirt and cargo pants with black army boots, to my private apartment, in the secured, monitored brick building, on seven for dinner by myself. My life alone was by design to protect the ones I love. Uneasy thoughts of the past cross my mind and I walk into the office in my apartment to check her trackers. Detective Joe Morelli's again, the one all the women call Officer Hottie, because with his brown hair and chocolate brown eyes he is considered by most women to be movie star handsome. They got back together three weeks ago and I figure they got another two months before they do the break up thing again.

I don't know why they do it; the longest they have ever stayed together without a fight has been just over six months and that was only once when her sister, Valerie with her husband and three girls, moved into her apartment and she didn't really have a choice but to get along with him. They usually don't make it three. I long for the nights she sleeps at home, when I can go over and watch her sleep. Her peace touches my soul and brings me a serenity I never thought I would feel again.

As much as she has gone through in her life, with kidnappings, bombings, exploding cars and still she is an innocent in her heart and mind, with a sweetness that I can feel every time I touch her. I can see her clear, bright blue sapphire eyes in my head, framed by her shoulder length curly brown hair, that is wild and practically uncontrollable in the morning. I can feel her five-foot, seven-inch soft frame plastered up against mine, taste her sweet pink lips, from earlier today when I dragged her out in the alley outside the Vincent Plum Bail Bond office and stole kisses from her. She feels guilty when she is on with him, but she can't say no, she can't resist me, always wants me and I know it so I take advantage of her every chance that I can get to remind me and her that I could have her if I put my mind to it.

But it's not a safe life I lead and even now there are rumors that Krizen is trying to get back to the states to get revenge for wrongs he blames on me. Tyco is in the states but he was last seen in California exporting high-end stolen vehicles and running a chop shop on the side. Gussipe Torlini hasn't been heard from since his human trafficking ring was busted in Egypt. If he hadn't taken that group of American diplomats and their families he would have been left alone, but he had to poke Uncle Sam, and Uncle Sam did more than just poke him back, we shut him down. The list is endless and I keep my ear to the ground to hear who is in the states and my back to the wall knowing they are always lining up to get at me.

It's nine o'clock and I know I won't be able to sleep so I change into black gym shorts and black tennis shoes and lug my six-foot 230lb solid muscle frame down to the gym. I am second generation American-Cuban, with short, straight dark brown hair, dark brown eyes framed by annoyingly long thick black lashes and dark mocha latte skin that means I don't burn under the hottest desert sun. My good looks and hard muscular body can get me any women I want and a long line of women I don't. For the last few years there has only been one woman I wanted. One that I have had in my bed numerous times.

Three of my enemies have already kidnapped or hurt her to get back at me. I can't justify having a relationship with her and putting her in even more danger on a regular basis. I mean I carry two guns and a knife at all times for a reason. I keep my back to the wall watching for the danger that is always hunting me. I can't even get her to carry a gun most of the time and even then, half the time it is not loaded. I love her to the depths of my being; how could I live with myself if she got hurt because of my past. I know the cop can take care of her. Well, at least he sleeps with a gun and it is definitely loaded.

It makes me crazy thinking of her perfect, god so sweet and perfect body in his arms every night. But that is my penance, the price I am willing to pay to keep her safe, even as it steals my sanity as I lay in bed thinking of her in someone else's arms. An hour of good weight lifting will get me closer to a night of partial sleep. An hour and a half later my arms are burning and I have run eight miles on the treadmill. I trudge back up to seven for a shower and to see if now I can sleep.

I lay in bed, breathing deeply, focusing my mind to shut down and go to sleep. Knowing when I dream I will always dream the horrors of my past and if I'm lucky she will show up at the end to bring a few peaceful minutes before dawn.

Wednesday April 13, 02:03

Suddenly my phone is ringing and the internal alarm for the building is going off. I grab my phone, "Talk." It is the control room. I am already up, gun in hand, black cargo pants going on.

"Breach on one. At the door, shots being fired into the door, one of them has a sledge hammer. It looks like they are going to break through it." Stanley the night guard at the control room alerted me.

I am instantly dressed; black t-shirt and boots in place. Knife and second gun in hand.

"I'm on my way down." And I disconnected as I hit the stairs strapping on my armament.

I arrive on one. No one is at the large mahogany front desk at night, but the lights are on as I enter. Zero, Tank, Lester, Bobby, Ryan, Ramon and Cal are standing, guns in hand, guarding the front, some looking slightly disheveled because they too have just been called out of bed. The glass door is shattered with more shots fired into the bulletproof door than I can count and the stale sent of burnt gun powder hangs in the air. It is shattered but it's still holding and the camera right outside the door has been shot out. I sit at the computer monitor, at the desk, pulling up the camera from higher up on the building and turn it to look down at the concrete step outside the front door. I see a small flat package left behind. It looks too small to be a bomb but it could be a trap with someone waiting for the doors to open and someone to come out so they can shoot them. I call the control room.

"Check everywhere for anyone out there, especially snipers."

They start going through all the camera angles, while I pull up the video of the assault and I freeze, my breath in my throat. It's Mukhtar, his brown eyes shining under his long brown hair, over his dark Turkish complexion and two large Hispanic looking goons standing behind him. He was severely injured after an attack in his village went wrong five years ago but I would know him anywhere. I'm not sure why he would be coming after me. We set him and his men free from the hell hole they had been kept in as a side part of a mission to stop illegal weapons from getting shipped from Turkey to Iran.

The video showed them walking up to the Haywood building door and just shooting the shit out of it. Then a Tank sized sidekick takes a large sledge hammer, raising it high over his head before bringing it down against the door three times. Good to know the extra strong polycarbonate works.

Mukhtar takes a small package out of his brown leather jacket pocket, holds it up for the camera and lays it down on the ground all while looking into the camera. Then he lifts his gun and shoots the camera out. I take a deep breath. Mukhtar is now the type of man to get up close and personal kind of dirty. Not a shoot from afar, he wants to see you quake, shoot you at close range but probably torture you first until you are a beaten man begging for death. He would know all about it he was practically there when we showed up and freed him.

But why would he be coming after me? And why after all this time? I took a deep breath and signaled for Cal, my refrigerator sized guard with a flaming skull on his white shaved forehead, and Zero, my brown military cut haired, blue eyed white bull, built slightly smaller than Cal, both wearing their RangeMan black, to cover me. I unlocked the door, and it creaked and the broken glass crackled in its bent frame as I slowly opened it and reached out to get the package. It was a small manila envelope, no writing on it, so I closed the door behind me and locked it, resetting the alarm. I nodded to the group of men. Two of the usual night shift; Ryan, another large man in black with brown hair and brown eyes and Ramon a 6' 2" big black man would guard the front door the rest of the night and the rest of the men were relieved to go back to where ever they had been.

I carried the envelope up to the medical lab on the third floor. It could be a biohazard, but Mukhtar had handled it with his hands so the outside was probably safe. Once there I got the sealed clear biohazard box out, we had a clear bio-seal case with built in gloves. So, I carried the box into exam room one setting it on the exam table, sealing and locking the door behind me. I placed the envelope inside and closed and resealed the lid. I slipped my hands into the built-in gloves and slowly opened the envelope looking for any kind of goo or powder that could be a biological agent.

I cautiously slid out the contents and found it was a CD case with a picture of Stephanie and me on the front. I stood their staring at it. It was obviously taken yesterday when I had dragged her out to the alley. In the photo, we were walking back to the bonds office side by side. Her in her typical jeans and red t-shirt, me in my Rangeman black. The photo was shot straight on but from a waist high level. I don't know how someone could have taken it without me seeing them. Of course, if it was someone just walking down the sidewalk or going into the next-door bookstore with a cell phone down by their side that probably wouldn't have set off my internal alerts.

I looked closer at the photo and she had her heart cut out and there were rifle crosshairs over my forehead. As I stood there my heart contracted painfully and I knew in my gut that whatever was on this CD/DVD was going to be excruciating. Mukhtar wouldn't come all this way to leave happy notes behind. This meant Stephanie was in trouble. I ran back up to my office on five and pulled up all of her trackers. Her car, cell phone and purse were all still at Morelli's. Damn if they took her I had no way to track her.

I opened the CD/DVD and ran it through a program that checked for viruses, worms, trojans, any kind of malware or spyware and anything malicious that could be on it. I wasn't expecting anything, Mukhtar was not a tech savvy guy. He barely knew how to check his email and surf the web, internet was only available in a little café in his small village. I popped it into my computer knowing I should have Hector check the coding first but dread was gnawing at the pit of my stomach and I knew something was wrong, very wrong.

The video opened up in night scope mode looking at her car, then it spun around passing several guys huddled in a group to show the front of Joe Morelli's two-story brown townhouse. They didn't finesse the lock but took a tire iron to it and popped it open splitting the wood on the frame. Still as violent as it was it took a fraction of a second and wasn't that loud. Knowing the layout of Morelli's house, I don't know if he would have heard it up in his bedroom. Five large men pushed past the camera and headed up the stairs. By the time the camera made it into the room Morelli was up, white boxers covered in yellow ducklings on, his gun in the hands of the big goon in front of him that he was trying to fight.

His fight lasted about thirty seconds, until he listed sideways and collapsed to the floor. I wasn't sure if he had been shot, but I hadn't heard it on the video, then the camera backed out a little and I saw a syringe lying on the bed. They must have injected him with something, and he had a minute of fight in him until it took effect. Seconds later four men converged on him, kicking him repeatedly and I knew since he was unconscious he wouldn't be able to protect anything. The kicking only lasted several minutes but for an unprotected man that is a lifetime.

You couldn't really see the beating because he was on the floor behind the bed, so I couldn't see how bad he was. The camera panned back to Stephanie and Mukhtar's head bent down by her's. He smiled at the camera the sick perverted smile of a deviant and grabbed her head in his grotesquely misshapened right hand and bent it away from him and then proceeded to lick all the way up her neck. She didn't respond in any way letting me know for sure that she had been drugged. He laughed maniacally, held up a roll of duct tape, and proceeded to tape her mouth, her hands and her feet.

"Now we take her back home." He spoke in his broken English. The camera went black and I paused it. I didn't know what to say. I had such a good fifth sense that had served me and my men for years. Getting a gut feeling when things weren't right and knowing there was trouble ahead that we could then avoid or be prepared for. Something like Stephanie's spidey sense as she calls it, but mine works sensing danger and the best way to achieve an objective, or a warning on how to avoid problems with an assignment and with finding people like a hound dog I just sometimes know where people are trying to hide from me. But nothing had forewarned me of this and I was worried for Stephanie.

Mukhtar lives in a remote village in north Turkey. Certainly, he is not taking Stephanie there. More likely he has been hired by someone who knew his connection to me and is using it to get to me without raising talk on the street or warning flags. He is probably taking Stephanie to his boss, but what for? A ransom? Blackmail? To get me to do an assignment for them before they will release her? Anyone who knows the truth knows I would do anything for her and I will kill anyone who hurts her. I pulled my mind into the present.

I reached for my phone and dialed dispatch directly. "Send officers to Morelli's house and an ambulance. There has been a break in and he has been attacked and probably drugged." I said in a clipped voice as soon as Casey, the officer working nights answered. "There were six guys and file a kidnapping report for Stephanie Plum she was there with him and was kidnapped."

"Are you there right now?"

"No, someone sent me a video of the break in. Six guys broke into the house, there were two syringes on the bed and after a minute Morelli just collapsed, so I think he was drugged. But once he was down, four men took turns kicking the shit out of him. Then they duct taped Stephanie and I am assuming kidnapped her. They looked like they were preparing her to be taken somewhere. I have the DVD, when you can send an officer over to pick it up as evidence and take a report for me. Three of the same guys shot up my front door and then left the video behind as a present."

"Can you identify the men? Have you seen them before? Do you know who they are?"

"No, I don't know who they are." Whatever name I knew him by I was certain it wasn't what he used to get into the country.

"Well Detective Morelli reported a break-in two hours ago. He was transported to the hospital. He will want any information you have of the break-in."

"Any word on Stephanie Plum?"

"Ranger, they have reported her as missing and possibly kidnapped. That's all the information I have so far." Casey told me.

"She was definitely drugged and kidnapped."

"We will send an officer by to get that recording, but it may not be till morning we are short staffed with men taking care of the crime scene at Morelli's."

"It will be at the front desk when you have someone available." I disconnected.

I quickly called up the video of the front door attack and burned it onto a blank DVD. Then I took another and burned just the video of Joe's house onto it. I knew there was going to be a lot more video for me that neither I nor Stephanie would want anyone else to see. I called down to Ryan on one. "Expect an officer to come by later tonight or in the morning. They will be picking up a recording, writing up a report for the attack on the front door and roping it off for the crime lab tomorrow."

I started the video back up steeling myself for the horrors that it would contain. Mukhtar had been horribly tortured for weeks before we found him and his men and helped them escape. The worst was that they had been starved, and when he wouldn't give up the information he was being tortured for they cut him up a little at a time, and left the part behind for him to eat to survive. Part of an ear, three fingers, two toes was the tally by the time he had been rescued.

Not to mention the daily beatings and other unspeakable tortures he and the other men were put through. They were just men that had been rounded up from a local village. A shipment had broken down outside of the village and the men and weapons had all disappeared and Mukhtar swore to us they knew nothing about them but they had been captured and tortured until they turned the weapons over. We let them go, seizing, destroying and transporting back what we could of the illegal weapons and ground to air missiles they had, that was our primary objective. Again, I couldn't fathom why he was coming after me and Stephanie.

The video was black for several minutes, but I could hear quiet talking and movement. Finally, the cap was removed from the camera and it was a close up of a spoon being held over a flame. Then a syringe came into view and all the liquid was sucked out of the spoon. Heroin. The camera panned down to a bed in a dark hotel room. Stephanie was tied facing up, spread eagle, in her pale pink camisole and light grey sweats, on the little twin bed. The needle was held in front of her face, and her eyes flashed defiance. Noise coming out from behind her duck taped mouth. My Babe, so much spunk and fight. As much as I was sad that they were going to inject her with this, whatever she had to face would be tempered by a drug induced haze that would make everything but death more bearable.

The syringe was lifted up from her face to her arm that already had a tourniquet in it. The needle was stuck into a vein and the drug was injected into her. The camera panned back to her face and I could only hope they were using a clean needle for her and not sharing it with a group. Slowly her face changed from defiant to relaxed to euphoric. "Get her up." Came the rough voice from behind the camera.

The camera shut off and when it turned back on Stephanie was up on her feet, still dressed in her sweats and t-shirt, smiling at the men around her. I gritted my teeth as one stepped forward and punched her right in the face and she went down like a sack of sand. My blank face was the only thing apparent as I didn't move and didn't breathe. If they beat her up right there on camera, where I could do nothing to save her I would dish out whatever they do to her ten-fold.

I focused on faces memorizing each one for the retribution I would bring, printing pictures of each man as the video played. She was picked up by her hair and hit again in the gut falling to the floor again. Two men hauled her up by her arm pits and she was punched directly in the eye, her head snapping back in reaction. "Enough." the voice from the darkness said. "get her dressed now." The camera panned to a pretty, skintight red dress hanging solely in the closet over a pair of five-inch red pumps.

The camera shut off again.

****************Violence Warning****************

You can skip down to the next row of asterisk and miss most of it***

The camera came on again. This time two more lights in the room were on, showing a shadowy, dimly lit small dirty hotel room with two twin beds, covered by faded thin red paisley bedspreads, a small black wooden table with one drawer and thin metal based lamp with a wide yellow brimmed shade between them. Across from them were three cushioned arm chairs that were a faded dark hunter green swathed in red, orange and yellow flowers, currently occupied by the other three men. There was a tall, living room lamp with the same yellow brimmed shade as the table lamp had, between the chairs that was on.

Three of the men sat on the further twin bed, and Stephanie was tied face down on the closest twin, her brown curly hair covering her face so I couldn't see what she was thinking. Her arms were spread wide and tied up tight, longways, the length of the bed. One to the top far corner and the other to the bottom far corner of the bed. Her torso, now covered by the tight red dress, splayed out across the middle of the bed and her butt and legs going off the side as she was kneeling on the stained threadbare green carpet. _Dios_ , I would make them regret ever taking a job to hurt her, regret every thought of hurting her. If they killed her there would be no safe place on this earth for them to hide. ( _God_ )

 _Madre de Dios!_ I sweated in frustration, knowing this wasn't going to be good so I put the DVD on a 3x speed and watched while three of them that had belts took them off and one at a time stepped up to belt her across her back, her butt, her legs. My hand tightened into white knuckled fists as I watched in frustrated rage. With the faster speed, I couldn't hear the crack of each swing but I could see her jump and try to scoot away. Slowly her dress, barely long enough to cover her butt in this position, was riding up with each hit and squirm to get away. Finally, one of the men produced a knife and slid it down the back of her dress slicing it open to her waist and then pulled the bottom up over the smooth skin of her bare alabaster butt. _(Mother of God)_

 _Mierda._ Her perfectly silky skin now marred with crisscrossing swollen red marks, turning purple; from her upper back to her thighs, no part was left unmarked. Again, I was thankful that it was her back and not her delicate front getting beaten, but I would find them and when I did they would disappear for what they were doing to her. _Dios_ , how many times had I caressed that skin. Knowing she was mine if I were but to say the word and always pulling back, always leaving her alone to fend for herself. _(Shit, God)_

Next, one _puto_ stepped forward lowering his pants, kneeling behind my babe. _Cojeme,_ my hand slammed uncontrolled on my desk making the monitor shake and everything on my desk jump. I watched in fury as several of the other _bastardo_ stroked themselves while they viewed the nights entertainment. Each man took turns violating her, some multiple times, while my chest was so tight I couldn't breathe, my fists clenched so tight with the need to break each one in half. When they were done, they each took a knife and she thrashed as they held her down and carved their initials into her back, butt and thighs. Fuck, I would shred them to ribbons! As soon as she is safe I would find them all and when I was done they would wish for the death I would bring. _(man whore, Fuck me, bastards)_

********A little more violence left but you need to know it for the story********

I sped the video up to 4x speed. I just needed to get to the end. If she gets killed at the end of this video I would die with her. Die a thousand deaths that no matter what I had tried to do I couldn't save her. All the trackers in the world didn't help if they didn't take them when they took her.

I did this to her I realized, refusing to have a relationship to protect her from exactly this horror. How was I so stupid to think that the cop would be a deterrent. That if they saw her going home to him they would leave her alone or at least he slept with a gun and could protect her. What a flimsy protection that didn't stand up to one attempt. Anyone that wanted her could get at her anytime.

She would have been better protected in her apartment if it was wired with a security camera right outside her door and fire escape. We would have known the minute her apartment was breached and could have had men on the way.

I looked at my watch, half an hour has gone by and all I could wonder was how much drugs did they give her and would they last longer than the abuse. Suddenly the camera was turned around and Mukhtar was talking to the camera. I stopped the DVD, backed it up and hit play.

"Ranger, this is a horrible way to repay your kindness of releasing me and my men, but when we got back to our village, it and our crops had been burned to the ground. Half of our women, children and animals had been killed. Those that were still alive had been violated and abused, even up to our oldest grandmothers. Now you and your men were honorable and would never do such a thing. But we found that the men who had were a mixed bunch of insurgents hunting the missing weapons for their own profit." He paused taking a deep breath.

"After bouncing around the Middle East and Eastern Europe doing odd jobs, this group of men recently retired to the United States. Half are Americans. We tracked the leader Michael Semeth and several of his men to Texas. So, what does this have to do with you? Well, we couldn't get temporary visas to enter the country and was approached by Sergio Valentino. I know you know him, and he hates you and has put out multiple hits on you, but could never get close." Yes, I knew Valentino, a Colombian drug lord that decided to put his drug profits into other lucrative businesses to wash the money at first and then to make even more of it.

"Sergio promised to solve our, getting into the country, problems if we took care of one little problem for him. Instead of a team trying to get you, we are to take out your women. First your lover, next your daughter, then your mother and finally your four sisters and we can't forget Grandma Rosa, and Grandma Sanja. It's not fair to you but it is the price I have to pay to get back at those that took everything from us."

As much as it sickened me, I just needed her to survive. She was the strongest woman I knew, she has lived through so much. If she can just survive I would be by her side. I would help her through this.

Suddenly the thought _I would never leave her side again_ , went through my mind and I knew if she would have me I would move her in here with me. She would never be safer than here living with me. Always by my side. I could protect her better keeping her close than pretending to not love her and sending her away. She would be mine. I knew in many ways she already was, but I didn't know if she could forgive me for this atrocity being forced on her to punish me. She has never told me she loved me, but I could see glimpses of it in her eyes, her infectious smile she could never hide, and in the way, she could never say no to me.

I had to find her, had to have her. I scoured the video for any clue, I had already looked but now I tried to read the loose papers and card propped on the table between the beds. Turned out to be menus for local restaurants that delivered and a TV channel guide. I guess they had rearranged the room because I didn't see any TV or any furniture that would hold one. I kept looking but couldn't find a single piece of paper anywhere that had any information on it.

Finally, the camera was turned around again and Mukhtar started talking. "This next part is not what I would do. I would just kill all your women outright," He pulled out a six-inch hunting knife from a sheath on his belt. He lifted her head up by her hair, her face still covered by the high angle of the camera and all her hair hanging down around her face. Then he ran the knife edge across her throat. "But we were given specific orders and everything we do here tonight is videotaped for Sergio as well as for you. We were given the equipment and told exactly what to do and how to do it. So, we must go for a trip now and prepare your woman for her final performance." I jumped as he plunged the knife into her left side, below her rib cage, if she didn't bleed out she should survive, but now I had to get to her fast.

I started the video fast forwarding again. The next shot was of a ten-story red brick and glass building, with white brick accents, it was a building in downtown Trenton, the Wilson building I realized. He zoomed up, up, up and from the seventh floor there was Stephanie, tied up in a blanket hanging from a white beam that stuck ten feet out from the building. _Mierda_! _Maldita sea_ _._ This whole time she has been hanging their bleeding out and I have been watching every bit of this video for a clue. I looked at my watch, the video had been left a little after 0200, it was two thirty-five now. Mukhtar was talking again and I slowed the video to listen. _(Fuck, God Damn It)_

"You can't save her but I will be video-taping your pathetic attempts. The beam she is hanging from folds down to the building to make her fall, it will only hold a total of two hundred pounds before it collapses, so if you put any weight on it," he lifted his arm up in-front of his face and let it fall, "phoomfh, it releases and lets her loose. Also, I have a release mechanism that is holding on to her rope that I can release at any time, but to give you a chance to watch the woman you love die I won't release it until you are ten feet from her. Ten feet from the top, bottom or side and zip she goes free." He held the remote up and showed it to the camera. "Best of luck to you." Then the video went black.

I had my phone in hand and the video copy's and file folder of pictures in the other. I was calling Tank as I ran down the stairs to the equipment room.

"Talk."

"I know where she is we need eight men, and all repelling equipment loaded up to leave in less than ten minutes. Tell Bobby to have a trauma kit and an ambulance waiting." I was grabbing repelling equipment and as much rope as I could carry. Lester, Hal, Tank, Woody, Cal, Zip, Junior and then Bobby showed up. Every man fresh from the sheets, wearing the standard RangeMan uniform of black t-shirt with RangeMan embroidered in red over the left chest, black cargo pants tucked into black army boots.

"She is hanging from the seventh floor on an arm that reaches ten or more feet out from the Wilson building. I need six men on the side of the building, Lester, Woody and me from the roof, Tank, Cal, Hal below her from the sixth floor. When we get with-in ten feet of her they are going to release the catch that is holding her and she will drop. So, you must get below her first. Pack the litter. We will need it to bring her up. Load up, leaving in five."

I whisked out with all the equipment and rope I had slung over my shoulders and ran for the concrete stairs barely hearing the pounding of my boots as I took them two at a time. Worried about how much she might have bled out and how long it had been since she was stabbed. I slung all my equipment into the back of the black Cayenne and left the hatch open. I got into the driver's seat, slipped on my climbing gloves and started the engine. Seconds later the garage door opened and all my men came pouring out running to get to the vehicles.

Tank, my tank sized partner since he got out of the seals. He is black as night, 6'6", big as a house, and has a scary blank face to anyone who doesn't know what a big heart he has or that he carries around pictures of his cats that he loves in his wallet, got into the passenger's side. Equipment loaded in the back and closed so fast you heard the slamming of black doors and hatches like thunder rumbling through the garage. I peeled out of there in a squeal of smoking tires, like it was the Daytona 500 and practically ripped the arm off the security gate I charged it so fast. The road was a blur as the five vehicles sped through town, barely any other traffic on the road, the sky above us was mostly clear having lost the haze of the day and the heat of the semi-cloudy hot day had dissipated into a cooler night with a slight breeze.

Within minutes we were pulling up in front of the Wilson building, a line of black vehicles, like the swat team is here. As we unloaded, the men all took seconds to look up and see a large white, person size cocoon, hanging out from a white beam, just below a seventh story window. One quick look through binoculars clarified it was Stephanie, hanging there with her eyes closed, wrapped feet to chin in a white blanket and tied up tight, like a human burrito, little red heels poking out the bottom.

'Hang on Babe, I'm coming,' I silently spoke to her. Expecting that if she opened her eyes she would see the line of black SUV's signaling our arrival. I could only hope that she was still alive, that they hadn't done anything else to her once they shut off the video camera. The fact that there was no big red blood stain showing on the blanket she was wrapped up in brought hope that she wasn't bleeding out.

I started prepping my men the second my car door opened. I handed Zip, my 6' 4" black monster man who was often paired with Zero, in looks they couldn't have been further apart but their even calm temperaments were so similar they made great partners, the file folder. He knew to stay on the ground and monitor the situation, coordinate the emergency vehicles and scout for the six men in the file. It was his job to watch for snipers, we didn't want to get picked off the side of the building. I opened the back of the Cayenne and started unloading the ropes and equipment.

My men knew what to do: Tank, Cal, and Hal, Stephanie calls him Halasaurus because he is a 6'3" white guy with muscles on muscles, brown boyish hair and brown eyes; would exit a sixth story window and hang below her. Lester, my irritating 6'1", playboy cousin on my mother's side, who is still Cuban but has blond hair and green eyes, and Woody, my black haired, cowboy hat wearing, almost six foot, bulky but average compared to Hal and Cal, would bring the litter, we would be dropping from the roof. Lester and Woody would hang about the eighth floor with the litter. Bobby and Junior would stay on the roof, manage the anchors and raising and lowering the litter. I will be the only one to rappel down and get her. I had the twin glass doors open in seconds and Cal hacked the security system and men in black rushed the building like an FBI raid on some white-collar ponzi scheme.

I led the run up ten flights to the roof and immediately began suiting up for the decent. The roof was the easy place to descend from because there were already anchor points used by the window washers for the bi-weekly cleaning. While the guys on six will probably have to punch holes in the wall to find studs to attach to. After getting suited up, I grabbed the litter, Lester and Woody had hauled up the stairs and began to get it hooked up. Bobby, my 6' medic, with dark brown eyes and lighter black skin, was like Lester and Woody, large compared to the average man, lean when standing next to the other linebackers I hire prepped his medical box and then helped me get the litter ready. Junior was white, blond and almost as big as Hal and Cal, but he had blue eyes and a boyish face that made him look young and only a little threatening.

"Bobby, be prepared to treat her as soon as she gets to the roof. Expect a stab wound and she definitely has been drugged."

I stood for just a second remembering my last decent down a building, we were under heavy fire in Kandahar so we had to drop by bird onto the roof. We were trying to rescue a family but the door to the roof was blocked and three of us repelled down the side of the building and in through the living room window. But the mother was afraid of heights so we blew the door to the roof and walked them out. I just hoped this turned out as good that we would get to her in time and she would still be alive.

With that I went over the side of the building, rappelling a little over two stories to hang twenty feet above her. I turned around so I was facing her and watched as Tank, then Hal, and finally Cal climbed out of a six-story window directly below her all three moving to catch her when she is released. I looked back over my shoulder to see Les and Woody descending with the litter between them and a few lazy clouds flow over the top of the building.

When everyone was in place I braced myself for the inevitable drop, and freed my rope. I ran down the building and when I was almost level with her jumped out to grab her. I was only inches from her, but at that second, she was released and began to fall.

To be continued…

A/N I hope you are enjoying this story so far. I wrote it out because it was burning at my brain to get it on paper, and I share it now for your entertainment. Please read and review I really want to hear what you think. Will post the next chapter soon.


	2. Chapter 2 Ranger's Story

Chapter 2 Ranger's Story

 _When everyone was in place I braced myself for the inevitable drop, and freed my rope. I ran down the building and when I was almost level with her jumped out to grab her. I was only inches from her, but at that second, she was released and began to fall._

Already in the air, I pushed off the post she had been strung up on and went flying down the building to catch her. Hal, Cal and Tank stood braced below us ready to stop her fall. She was falling feet first with high heels on and no matter how big you are, that was going to hurt. Determinedly I flew down, caught up to her and in a nanosecond grabbed her with both hands, pulled her to me, wrapped my right arm around her and clutched her to my body.

The same instant I had her, my left hand shot out, snagged the freefalling rope and gripped it firmly. The rope jerked tight and forcefully whipped us around to face the sky, like a yo-yo hitting the end of it's string. Her body was pressed hard against mine as we swung back towards the building. My right arm was around her like a vise holding her tightly to my chest as we bounced off the building while we continued to slowly slide down it.

I grabbed the rope tighter, the friction burning through my glove, bringing us to a stop. I planted my feet firmly against the building as we hung there. I quickly locked my rope into place and wrapped both arms around her. Her back was to me. "I have you, I have you now." I whispered my breath tight in my throat, my chest heaving as I struggled to calm myself.

Lester and Woody were already descending to us with the litter. With both arms I turned her around, laid her against my body and looked into her battered face. She looked back with bright blue eyes, one purple and almost swollen shut, staring deeply at me. She looked clear eyed, and battered, but not all that drugged, hurt or afraid.

I had been scared of what I might see when I looked at her again. Expecting blame and recrimination because her being taken was all my fault. This time I hadn't had any advance warning, there was no chatter on the street, no notices from foreign nationals, no guidance from government contacts, no signs from overseas sources, no warnings that something was coming, no whispers in the wind, nothing; regardless, I hadn't protected her. I reached out and gently removed the duck-tape from her mouth.

"Babe." It was all I could say, relief sweeping through me.

"I knew you would save me, but you took your sweet time. I've been hanging up there for hours. My whole body has gone numb, but I'm glad to see you." She smiled at me. Sweet, sassy, tired. I could see all of that in her face, but she didn't look especially abused. Maybe the drugs kept her from being aware or from knowing it was real. Maybe she thinks it was all a dream.

"Babe I've only known where you were for about fifteen minutes. Your kidnappers took their time notifying me. Now that I have you, we have to get you up to the roof of this building. Lester has an air gurney, we are going to strap you to it and haul you up."

"Can't you just carry me up?" The 'I want to stay with you' was obvious in her face.

"Babe I'll stay right here by your side. I can't hold onto you and ascend, but I will stay with you. I promise I will be right here." I lifted my head and pressed it against her forehead. Whatever I needed to do to make her whole again, I would do. I would do anything for her, to protect her, to never let her go now that I have her back, alive in my arms. Why did I ever think that cop could protect her? He probably won't even want her after tonight. He's looking for a wife and mother for his children. Not a drugged up, woman who has been raped and tortured.

The cops had arrived with the ambulance, I could see their flashing lights reflecting against the buildings. I knew with her injuries, she needed to go to the hospital. She probably needed surgery. But what happened to her would get out and the gossip would hurt her as much if not more than the events of tonight. I didn't know how to stop it from happening. In the Burg every tragedy was fuel, and anything having to do with Stephanie was highly sought-after fodder. Stephanie gossip was more sought after than the six o'clock news.

I quickly decided that I would go to the hospital and try to keep as much as I can from getting out. I will talk to the nurses, Doctors, and cops personally. I will do everything I can to keep this tragedy from ruining her life. Lester was hanging next to me with the litter. He pressed it right up against my horizontal body.

"Here you go babe. No fear, I will be right here." I swung her over into the litter. Lester and I quickly strapped her in.

"Hey Beautiful. Spent the night hanging around in the dark? You know you're not a bat, right?" Lester got a smile out of her, her second in just a few minutes. If she can still smile after tonight I know she will eventually be alright. We signaled to get Bobby and Junior to pull her up. Tank should be headed to the roof, to help pull her up as well. Hal and Cal would stay below until everyone made it to the roof.

Smoothly the litter began to rise and I stayed right with it, actually getting a little ahead of it so I could look down at her and she could look up and see me. I climbed over the edge of the roof at the same time they were pulling her over. I disengaged myself from my rope and harness and knelt by her side. We undid the straps holding her to the litter and I took out my knife and cut away the ropes holding her in the blanket she was encased in.

She was wrapped up tight, and I unwrapped her like a Nightmare Christmas present from Jack, but not seeing any blood on the outside, 'maybe they bandaged her up' flitted through my mind. I lifted the left side of the camisole she wore, so I could check out her stab wound, but all I found was her sweet creamy pink skin, no big gaping hole. I quickly, thoroughly checked her out. Raking my hand all the way down her side, no stab wound anywhere on her. I turned her on her right side, away from me, and lifted her camisole, no belt marks down her back. I pulled out her sweats so I could look down them, but there were no carved initials on her backside. I was shocked for a millisecond, even as relief flooded through me. I know what I saw and they had done all those things to someone with shoulder-length curly brown hair.

"Excuse me, what are you doing? Cut me loose." Stephanie demanded holding out her hands. I laid her on her back and cut away the ropes on her hands while Junior cut her feet free. I wrapped my arms around her clutching her to me. This was it, I had her in my arms and I was never going to let her go. Never let this ever happen to her again. Then I saw it, underneath her, a folded-up piece of white computer paper.

I laid her back down for Bobby to check her out, opened the letter and read the Turkish scrawl. _'You saved us from more torture and certain death. I could not repay you by permanently damaging your woman; even if you let her sleep in another man's bed. Sorry about her face but she needs to be seen as damaged. Our instructions were clear, we were to get her, beat her, rape, mutilate and leave her with a life-threatening wound. Make it impossible for you to save her and record it all to send back to Sergio. Then we are to repeat it with all your women. We have pictures and a list of names and addresses. This is your one warning, hide your women for the next two weeks because we search for them. At that time, we will have to move on to complete our other assignments. Now say a prayer for the surrogate that stood in for your woman tonight, we could not take her to a hospital and she did not survive her wounds. There will be no surrogate next time, next time it will be just your women. One or several at a time. It will depend on how lucky these guys get and how well you can hide them.'_ I folded up the piece of paper.

Stephanie was just sitting up staring at me, as Bobby examined her face. "Check her for residual effects from drugs. I know they drugged her at least twice." I volunteered. When he was done, I gathered her up in my arms swearing to never let her go again.

"What was on the paper? Was that from my kidnappers? Can I read it?" She peppered me with questions.

"Babe, It's not in English." I looked at her seriously as I handed her the piece of paper, "It was a warning to hide my other women or they will take them and do something similar or worse to them." She looked at the paper. She glared at me taken aback as she handed it back to me.

"What other women?" I could see shock and betrayal in her beautiful face. I quickly folded up the paper and stuck it in the side pocket of my cargo's.

"Julie, my mother, sisters, even my grandmothers." I pulled her up to her unsteady feet. Now knowing she was only bruised and battered I was ready to get her down, checked out by the paramedics, and talk to the police.

"They are going after your whole family?" She questioned me.

"Yes, these men brutally lost their families, and whole village."

"You took out their village?"

"No, not me or my men, the story is long and complicated. Let's get off this roof and I will tell you what I can." She staggered on her five-inch red heel's and I gripped her tightly around the waist.

"I'm not very steady. I think half of me is still numb."

Hating to bring it up because her eyes didn't look drugged out, but I didn't know how long ago she had been given the heroin. "Babe have you gone through withdrawals from the drugs they gave you?"

"Kinda, but then they gave me something else that put me to sleep. When I woke up I was hanging up here. So, I don't remember most of it. But my head is pounding, my mouth is dry and tastes funny, my eyes feel like sand paper and I'm extremely thirsty." She quietly said.

"Do you want something for the pain?"

"Bobby already offered me something, but I don't want to take anything yet. I just want to sleep and see if I feel better in the morning."

"Ok, let's get you down off this roof." I swept her up in my arms and carried her down all ten flights of stairs; holding her close with her arms wrapped around my neck. I left the men to wrap up and bring down all the equipment, except for Junior who was rushing ahead of me to open doors as we went. Finally, we made it outside and I carried her over to the ambulance, even as police officers came to talk to us.

While Stephanie was getting checked out by the paramedics I called the Miami office and had men assigned to my family there. She steadfastly refused to go to the hospital, despite the persuading and pleading that came from me and the paramedics. Her nose wasn't broken, the paramedics said. Icepacks and bruise cream would be the best the hospital could do anyway.

The police took her report, but she was drugged almost the entire time and couldn't give any better descriptions of the men than they could get from the video, so I cut them short on that line of questioning. I got the file folder of pictures from Zip, the copy of the video from the Cayenne and turned them over to the police.

We asked about Joe, and found out he was taken to St. Frances with a broken left arm, some bruised ribs and a possible concussion from the fall. He had bruises all over but didn't have any life-threatening injuries. I was glad for Stephanie's sake that he would live, but it would make convincing her to stay with me that much harder as she would want to go mother him.

I wouldn't leave Stephanie now but I had to get my family out of harm's way immediately and I knew my mother and sisters would be a problem. As soon as my men were loaded up, I sent them to Newark to protect my family. Tank and Junior on my mama, Hal and Cal on my oldest sister Leyla, Lester and Woody on my younger sister Isabella, Bobby and Zip on my older sister Angelia who lives an hour and a half away in Kentwood. From the office, I sent Chet and Hank for my youngest sister Oshanna, who now lives in New York.

It was 0420. I took Stephanie back to her apartment to get showered and changed. I didn't even ask; I just packed her a small overnight bag, prepared two small bags of ice wrapped in paper towels and laid out clothes on her bed. When she wanted to go to sleep I put Keds on her feet, handed her the ice packs and told her she could sleep all day at Haywood but I wasn't leaving her alone until the threat was over.

She argued that if they were going to kill her they would have already done it, and I picked up her bag in one hand and swept her into my arms, carrying her to the door. _Dios_ she smelled so good fresh out of the shower like citrus strawberry smash. She kicked out with both legs and hit me in the chest with her fist full of ice and I sat her down on her feet. As much as I didn't want to I had to tell her about the video they sent me. _(God)_

"Stephanie, I knew where you were tonight because those bastards sent me a video of their night's activities with you. From the kidnapping at Joe's to hanging you off the building they recorded everything. After they drugged you and videoed them hitting you, they showed a woman with curly brown hair in a red dress, tied up. A woman they beat savagely, they raped her, they mutilated her, then they stabbed her, she didn't survive her wounds." I looked into her eyes and shook her slightly, from the shoulders to make sure I had her attention and she knew I was serious.

"Stephanie, the woman in the video looks like you. It makes it look like it was you they did all these things to and if they get ahold of you again that nightmare will become a reality. That's not something I'm willing to chance. Right now, you can come and sleep safely at Haywood. I'm not going to lock you up there but for today, PLEASE, come stay at Haywood and sleep until I can get my family squared away." She finally nodded at me and I took her hand, locked up her apartment and led her to the elevator.

On the way to Haywood I explained what I could of Mukhtar's story, leaving out places, time frames and mission objectives. Only telling her that on an unrelated mission we found him and his men being held hostage and tortured. That we spent four days, while we were carrying out our mission, sharing our water, our MRE's, what other food we could find, giving them basic medical care, nursing them back to some semblance of health. Then set them free to go back to their village, but when they got to their village it had been burned, half their women and children murdered and the other half attacked and abused. That he was here in the States to get the men who destroyed his village. That to get a visa he had agreed to help one of my enemies get back at me, but instead of hurting her, he got another woman to take her place in the video that was sent. I explained that he had saved her from the fate of the anonymous woman in the red dress.

"They still tied me up, drugged and hit me. Then they duck taped me to the towel rack in the bathroom and left me in there forever with no lights on." She crossed her arms over her chest as she complained.

"I'm sorry Babe," even though I wasn't. I was so pleased that was all that happened to her. "We will keep you safe until this threat is taken care of."

"You can't lock me away on seven." She insisted.

"No locking you away. I promise." I didn't tell her she was going to have a two-man team assigned to her till these thugs were taken off the street.

As soon as Stephanie was settled in my big bed, me standing there wishing I could crawl in and hold her, I looked at my watch. It was 05:00, I decided to go down to the gym. I did my best thinking when my body was active. My mother wouldn't be up yet and it was going to be a stressful enough day without her losing sleep.

This wasn't the first time my family has been threatened, but every other time I took out the threat before it could get to them. This time I didn't have any clue to the whereabouts of these men and the threat level was too high to sit back and wait while I tried to find them.

I thought about the problem as I got onto the treadmill. I put all my emotions about Stephanie being kidnapped and hurt out of my head and let my mind focus on solving the problem of protecting my family while I searched for these men, as I put my body through its paces. Halfway through my workout I couldn't take it anymore the building anger and frustration was overtaking me. I slipped on some gloves and took my infuriation out on one of the big 150lb wavemaster pads as I pictured the faces of the nameless men who kidnapped Stephanie and all the things they did to that woman and how I felt when I thought it was Stephanie.

About 0600 some of the day crew started trickling in, including Ram and Vince. They saw my need for release. Everyone in the building had heard what went down last night and offered to spar two against me in the ring. Knowing full well that Tank, the only man who could hold his own against me, was out on assignment and the bag was less than satisfying in my overly agitated state.

"Ask Hank or Erik too, see if we can make it three or four against one." I told them and five minutes later all four of them came at me at once. Honestly this is how my men like to fight me, because standing in the middle of the ring with one man on each side is the only way they ever get a good hit in on me. I have kicked each of their asses enough that each one would love to get in a few blows before I take them down, and they know four on one I will still take each one down.

Forty minutes later the show was over. The ten more men that had shown up to, at first watch and then jump in the ring, were now limping and walking away shaking their heads in astonishment. I had taken them down or thrown them out as more men volunteered to join the "try to hit the boss" free-for-all. Having six in there going after me at once and I can't say I wasn't thrown or knocked down at all, but when it was done I wasn't the one that needed the infirmary.

Before I went upstairs I stopped in my office to make the calls I had been dreading. I sat apprehensively in my black leather chair, staring at my computer screen that still showed Stephanie's trackers at Morelli's. I debated calling from my office phone but decided my cell phone was a better idea because it would show my name.

"Hello."

"Mom, I am having an emergency. All the women in the family are in danger. Stephanie was kidnapped last night and hurt. We found her before she was killed but the same men have promised to kidnap, hurt and kill every woman in my family. Including you, all my sisters, Julie and even _Abuelas_ Rosa and Sanja. I need to get everyone to safe houses immediately. My men are already outside your door. The threat is for the next two weeks so pack a bag-" ( _Grandmas_ )

" _Me'jo_ , if you think your sisters and I are just going to be rounded up like cattle and locked away without a fight you are _loco_. I have work, Leyla, Isabella and Oshanna all work. The kids have school. Maybe the girls can come over this Saturday and-" I sat back in my chair frustrated. ( _My_ s _on, crazy_ )

"Mama This is a LIFE or DEATH EMERGENCY!" I said respectably but forcefully. "I'm coming over right now, this morning! Tell Papa to stay home. Call my sisters, tell them to all come to your house immediately for the day. That it is a _familia emergencia_ and they need to take the day off work, bring all the kids and if they can their husbands." _(family emergency)_

" _Mi'jo,_ it's Wednesday, everyone has work-"

" **Mama,"** I cut her off practically yelling into the phone, sitting forward, my back ramrod straight, holding the phone to my mouth, **"this is really LIFE or DEATH! I am very serious I just barely saved Stephanie and if they get their hands on anyone else in my family they are going to TORTURE and KILL them!** **No one can go to work today!** Right now, there are bad guys stalking them. Please mama, I only have a small window to save everyone. I need you and abuela to stay home and all my sisters to come to your house today so we can protect everyone. Stephanie was forcibly kidnapped out of her bed last night, drugged, beaten and almost killed. That and worse will happen to every woman in my family because of me. Call all my sisters, have them all call off work and come to your house. I am on my way. This is serious mama. Life and death serious. Can you do this for me _por favor_? **"** I compelled her." _(please)_

"Ok, Carlos, I see you are really worked up over this." I heard silence as she debated what I'd said and her taking a deep breath. "Fine, I'll tell your papa and call your sisters."

" _Gracias_ mama. _Ahora_ , I still have to call Rachel about Julie. I'll see you in about an hour and a half." I hung up the phone and wiped my hand down over my face. I could see my mother, a 5' 3", brown haired, brown eyed dynamo standing in her kitchen holding the phone getting ready to call my sisters. A nurse for 35 years, even with her short stature she was a force to be reckoned with and while my sisters would just argue with me they will listen to mama. _(Thank you, Now)_

I know the women in my family are just as stubborn as Stephanie. Maybe that is why I am so attracted to her, she is very much like my family, maybe I can hide them all together. Maybe I can send them somewhere. I don't currently have enough safe houses close together for the whole family as much as my sisters love each other, putting them in the same safe houses for two weeks would be akin to starting world war three. Put them far apart and they will drive me crazy wanting to go out and do stuff not to mention see each other. Three of them have kids who are active and won't take to being locked away. I make the call to pull men from Atlanta and Boston to cover Rangeman here.

Maybe we can just all go away, take everybody on a trip somewhere. Where would my sisters, their kids and my mama like to go? Disney World? Too Public, Las Vegas? Too noisy, New York? Too crowded. Some quiet resort somewhere? If everyone has a passport we could go out of country to the Bahama's or someplace. There is always Hawaii. Hawaii was nice with Stephanie. Of course, it would be a whole different trip with my family.

I had already called the Miami office and had a four-man team put on Julie, my 12-year-old daughter that lives with her mother and step-dad. She is smart, vivacious and has curious brown eyes and long dark hair like mine. She was the surprise after a one-night encounter with Rachel when I was on leave. Both being Catholic I did the right thing and married her before Julie was born. Julie was born right on time but I was on a mission that was delayed and I made it back to hold her at two days old and nothing in my life could have prepared me for that moment.

I was forever changed, looking into her fascinating, intelligent deep brown eyes, holding such an innocent thing. Feeling her squirm in my arms, sigh a little sigh and then burp a huge burp. I almost wanted to put her away from me, as tarnished as I am with all the things I have done. While in the next breath, hold her close, never to let her go. Her sweetness and innocence wanting to make me a better man. A man who would always be there for her, take care of her, protect her from the evil in this world.

A man who was worthy to have such an innocent miracle in his life. It spurred me on to be a better man, one she could be proud of. But I could never be the father she needed, so I let Ron her step-dad adopt her when she was just two, so that she could have a father and family in her daily life as she deserved. Now She has a brother and sister to complain about and is busy in 7th grade, being a happy well-adjusted 12-year-old preteen.

I have always kept paying child support for her even though I didn't have to, because in my heart she will always be my baby, my child, my responsibility. Then her perfect world came crashing down, two-years ago when she was abducted by a crazy man, Scrog, who stole my name, pretended to be me and collect the women in my life including Stephanie. It was the most frightening thing to live through knowing some lunatic who had already killed once had them both and I couldn't find them. It was the most natural thing in the world to walk into Stephanie's apartment where he held them hostage and sacrifice myself, my life to save theirs. I would do anything for them.

It is my greatest nightmare that these monsters would get a hold of these two, my most precious angels. Stephanie's my woman, I would do anything to save her, but Julie is my baby girl, and I will tear these monster's limb from limb for even threatening to do these unspeakable things to her. I would kill for Stephanie and I have, but I would burn the world down and remake it to save my Jewel, my baby girl. They signed their death warrants the minute they threatened to do such repulsive and unthinkable things to her. I closed my eyes briefly as I took a deep re-centering breath.

I had also put a two-man team on Abuela Sanja, the grandma I lived with when I was a teenager going to high school in Miami. I needed to make Rachel aware of what was going on and even if they didn't include her in the threat I was adding her to my list of women to be protected.

Mukhtar really seemed like he didn't want to hurt me or mine, but his strings are being pulled by Sergio, an oil, emerald, uranium and cocaine magnate, who was now worth billions. Sergio wants me to suffer, he wants me to pay in blood for the land and millions he lost, when we stopped his hostile plan to drive out local farmers, raze their village, and kill their livestock. All of this in the name of progress when what he really wanted was the uranium rich land they lived on. He planned to sell it to countries who were banned from having it or closely monitored in the amount of uranium they imported because they wanted to illegally turn it into Plutonium-239 and make nuclear weapons to use against the US and her allies.

Thinking about the video, I didn't recognize any of the men with Mukhtar as men from his village that we rescued, they could all just be mercenaries hired by Sergio. I know these men will be under pressure to complete their mission and will do it to the best of their ability, but if they are mercenaries maybe they can be bought off. I finally picked up my phone and dialed.

"Hello"

"Rachel, Good Morning. I hate to call so early but I have something really urgent going on. I need you to keep Julie home from school today and stay home with her. There has been a threat made to all the women in my family including Julie. I have men outside your house right now and will keep them on you and Julie until the threat is taken care of. But today I really need you to just stay inside while we get it under control."

"What kind of threat?"

"There are some men here send from overseas to get to me by hurting the women in my life. Julie was named specifically, you were not but I'm not taking any chances with any woman who is a known part of my life, including you."

"What should we do? I have to take the kids to school and even if I keep Julie home there is no way I can keep her in the house all day. She is very active and going to have to get outside. Plus, today I have to run errands and we have no food in the house. Normally I would have gone shopping on Monday but the car had to go into the shop and I really need to go to the grocery store."

"The men outside have two SUV's. You can load all the kids in one and take Freddy and Cassie to school today and they can take you shopping for groceries. All other errands will have to wait a few days. They will escort you through the store and back out again. I know it will be uncomfortable to be escorted down every isle but it is for your and Julie's safety. Can you do this for me today?"

"Is this going to be another Scrog incident?"

"I don't want to scare you but this seems to be a bit worse than Scrog. Stephanie was kidnapped and hurt last night. I managed to get Stephanie back in one piece but they are threatening to do worse to anyone else they find and Julie was on their list."

" _Mio Dios!_ _¿Qué nos has traído_?" ( _My god! What have you brought on us?)_

"Rachel this is not good, but we have forwarning and a time frame. They specifically told me two weeks so this is not endless. We just need to keep everyone safe in the mean time."

"Ok, I'm going to keep all the kids home today and I have some frozen meat in the deep freezer for tonight. But we can't put our life on hold for two weeks. You can't ask us to live like that."

"I understand and I'm working on it. If we can find them first we can get this over with sooner. I just need to keep everyone safe until then."

"Ranger, you need to get this handled. We can't keep living in fear everyday that something bad is going to happen."

"I'm taking care of it Rachel. No matter what I'm going to keep you safe. Just stay home with her today and I will deal with this situation."

"Ok, but we want to hear back from you what's going on. We can't stand to be kept in the dark like we were with Scrog." I know she didn't get updates as soon as the FBI and I had them with Scrog because everything seem to just upset her more. If she gets worked up over every little thing like she did with Scrog I knew I could never tell her everything but I had to tell her something.

"I will try to give you an update everyday but I can't promise anything."

I hung up with her and began to prepare myself to face my family. I wondered momentarily about taking Stephanie with me so they could hear first hand what they did to her but really, this was not the best situation to have her meet my family. I called Ella on six, "Breakfast for one. Stephanie's here for a while. Prepare to cook for her for a few weeks. I need to butter her up and keep her happy so donuts with breakfast and dessert with dinner would really help me."

"Of course." She answered.

I showered and dressed for a day of combat. Ella was already in the dining room with breakfast.

"Ella, _mi tia_ , I need you to stay in the building today. If you need to leave take a man with you." _(my aunt)_

"Why _sobrino_? You bring trouble again?" ( _nephew_ )

"Yes, but they aren't targeting me. They are targeting all the women in _mi familia_. You have not been named specifically. But I am putting everyone else in safe houses and if they can't get to the women they have originally targeted they may come after you. Because you work for me and are family." _(my family)_

She laughed heartily. "You're going to lock up Maria and your sisters? You and what army?"

"I know, but I don't know what else to do. They took Stephanie last night and she just barely survived. They are promising to do worse to the rest of my family. Beatings, torture, rape, death. It won't be pretty if they get their hands on any of them."

"Well do what you have to do. You won't be able to live with yourself if anyone besides you gets hurt."

I nodded. Sergio after trying to get at me for years has nailed down my weakness. I can live through hell and already have. My own death does not bother me. But harm my lover, my daughter, my mother and you wound me in ways that cannot heal.

I printed up pictures to take to my mama's house. I was going to have to get very graphic for any of them to take this seriously. I'd rather not show them the video so I was printing up some stills, but just in case, I have edited parts of the video to show them.

I printed up another round of pictures from the DVD that showed each man's face and the hotel room. I knew Mukhtar, but the men with him looked like professional mercenaries. In all the videos they were armed. It must have taken at least two men who knew rappelling gear to bolt up that arm and get Stephanie out on it without collapsing it. Men hired to help Mukhtar accomplish his assignment. I took it all downstairs to the control room.

I gathered, Caesar, Brett, Gino and Victor in a conference room on three. I gave them the pictures and DVD. They were to identify the men immediately, find out what names they used to enter the country, locate the hotel they used and find out where they're hiding. I knew that the events last night: the front door assault, Stephanie's kidnapping, her rescue, and all the men sent out to guard my family would be the talk of the building, but once these men watched that video, word of what was in it would go through the building like wildfire and any man awake would see it or at least hear about it.

I left the building in my Cayenne with two guys following me. This was going to be my hardest negotiation ever. None of them are going to believe they are in danger. None of them are going to want to miss work. None of them are going to want to go into a safe house and disrupt their lives. None of them would want to accept bodyguards. No matter what I do they are all going to be angry with me. I stared at the morning sun as I angled my car eastward, watching the brown smog and clouds build in the sky, as I drove I slipped into my zone, as Stephanie calls it, contemplating the situation.

I'm the little brother that they ordered around and beat up or the big brother that use to boss them around and they ignored so none of them will listen to me now. If I show them the video and pictures they are going to freak out for their safety and the safety of their kids and be pissed off at me for bringing this to their door. What can I entice them with? A vacation that they can't say no to, mostly because I won't give them a choice. I will remove them and their kids by force and keep them in lockdown if I have to. Yeah, because that works so well with Stephanie.

So, I give them a choice between lockdown and a trip somewhere. A private beach? Somewhere everyone doesn't go… mountains somewhere remote: a cabin in Maine, Colorado or Montana, fishing hiking, horseback riding, remote. Easy to control. Easy to guard. I use to have a lockdown plan for my family and had several houses here in Newark with just them in mind. Now it has been so many years and I have always taken out the threats before they could be real. I thought I was past the need for all this, so I finally let the houses go.

Maybe I should have brought Stephanie to talk to them, I thought again. I know she was exhausted and needed to sleep but my family would be better behaved with company around and just seeing her face and hearing what she went through first hand would go a long way in convincing them the danger is real. My phone rang, one glance told me it was the fifth-floor control room. "Talk" I ordered.

"Police report just came over the scanners. A woman in a red dress found dead…" I listened for a few moments and then shook my head. I didn't expect any different news I just thought it would have taken longer for the body to turn up.

When my mother's white with turquoise trim two-story house came into view, there was nowhere to park. I took a moment smelling the fresh dew filled morning and admiring the bushes that were greening up nicely and the bright yellow daffodils, red, pink and purple tulips and another small flowering plant intermingled behind them about a foot tall with deep maroon flowers on it. Junior and Tank were standing on the front porch, in front of the wicker bench and next to the Welcome mat that always stays in front of the door. Hal and Cal were out in one of the SUV's. I knew Lester and Woody would be in the backyard. Chet and Hank were assigned to patrol the neighborhood and I expect Bobby and Zip to be following Angelia.

I walked up to Tank and waited. "Everyone is here except your sister Angelia. They are all upset at you, and Lester won't go near the door because they already took several bites out of him and spat him back out. You are the most unpopular person of the year and aren't going to win any brotherly awards in there." He smirked at me knowing I was walking in to my own funeral.

"Erik and Martin are behind me. Dispatch them to where ever you need them. I want you and Bobby to report back to Haywood. Tell Bobby, Stephanie is sleeping on seven and needs cream for her face. I sparred with a few of the men this morning. He'll need to pass out a few ice packs, bruise cream, and there might be a sprained ankle or wrist. Have him check out Kyle and Gino; besides their pride, no one got seriously injured." I explained and Tank half-smiled at me knowing he's the only man who can even think about standing up to me in the ring.

"Expect ten men flying in from Boston and Atlanta, they will need to be picked up at Newark. I want them working the office. When they are expected to arrive send five new teams over. I want these men to do the pick up from the airport and then report to their racks. They have been up since two this morning and starting tomorrow I need them fresh and well rested."

"I only want Trenton men with Bomber training on my sisters. Leyla and Isabella will be good, but they each have a lot of kids and are inclined to flake out and disappear with one of them. Angelia and Oshanna will probably actively try to duck their security, especially if they are told they can't go to the mall, get a new pedicure, or stop in at Starbucks." I have no illusions that I can keep my family here. I know that at some point they are all going to take off and need protection, at least for today.

"NO ONE leaves in their own car. Absolutely NO ONE! Everyone gets chauffeured from here on out. Two bodyguards apiece while we are in town. I am trying to come up with a place that would house all of them, that would be safe, remote; a cabin in the mountains, an Alaskan cruise, Hell any two-week cruise. I would prefer to get them out of the country but I don't think they all have passports." Tank just looked at me blank faced, knowing there were not any good ideas at this point. I nodded a dismissal to him and stepped up to the front door.

I wiped my boots on the doormat and took a deep fortifying breath. I opened the door and walked in to complete chaos. My mother and two younger sisters, Isabella, and Oshanna, were arguing in the walnut wood cabinet and grey granite counter topped kitchen. My long brown haired, five-foot five, eldest sister Leyla was in the family room watching seven children with her deep brown eyes, trying to keep everyone calm and find a TV show or movie they all would like. My stoic six foot, brown haired, brown eyed father is just sitting at the old green and blue splattered kitchen table drinking coffee and watching the zoo.

" _Hermano_ , What the heck is going on? Why do we need all these guys in black with guns? Why can't I go to work today?" Isabella saw me first and started right in. Now they would attack, pecking me apart like a flock of seagulls. _(Brother)_

"Once everyone is here I will explain. I want to make sure the kids are distracted because this is going to be a very adult conversation that we don't want to be overheard."

"It's not going down like this. You can't lock us up or send us away just to get rid of some perceived problem. I have a fashion show in two days that I have to be there for. I am showing off two new designs and you can't do this to me." Oshanna, my youngest and tallest sister poked a finger into my chest to emphasize her words. At five-foot nine with bottle rich copper blond hair she was her own force of nature. She was wearing a short sleeve fashionable, pink business suit with white shell top and skirt that came to mid-thigh. She always looked professional and well put together. Long light brown legs that would never need panty hose finished in three-inch pink sandals showing off a French pedicure,

I just stared at her blank faced. "I will talk to everyone at once. Why don't you help Leyla get all the kids settled and then we can talk?" Oshanna gave me a look that said "as if" and headed to the coffeemaker for a refill. While my mother gave me a dirty look as she led the way to the family room.

Isabella, my five-foot six-inch, younger sister approached me next. She was wearing jeans and a light purple t-shirt with comfortable Nikes. Her dark brown hair was cut into a cute face framing bob but her face showed no signs of happiness. "I don't understand why I couldn't go to work today. I'm a nurse, they count on me to be there. There are sick patients that don't get the treatment they need if I'm not there."

"Isabella, I am grateful that you called in and came over to Mama's. I wouldn't do this if it were not truly life threatening." My mother followed Leyla back into the room and they both just stood there watching me. "Now we are just waiting on Angelia. I heard she is on her way does anyone know her ETA?" I asked.

"She was supposed to be here fifteen minutes ago." Mama wearing blue jeans, a bright pink floral shirt and her at-home blue crocks said.

"Mama, would you please call her, make sure everything is alright and find out when she will be here?" I asked knowing I could call the men tailing her, but if there had been any real problems they would have already contacted me so I was guessing this was just one of her stalling tactics.

"I'll call her." Oshanna said as she pulled out her cell phone and made the call. We all awkwardly stood around watching her as she had a quiet conversation.

"Mama, can we go into your bedroom? I need someplace away from the kids to show part of this video." I held up the DVD in my hand. She led me to the living room, pointed to the TV and I looked at her, resignedly. I knew she would guard her and my dad's privacy as fiercely as a rabid pole cat guarding a cave that held her two young cubs.

"Just a minute." I walked to the sliding glass door and stepped outside. "Lester."

"Not on your life. I've already had my hide handed to me. I'm not going in there with your women. These are your women, they are your problem, you get to explain it to them."

"I just need you to sit with the kids. I am going to show the women part of this video that is violent and I don't need one of the kids walking in on that."

"As long as I don't have to speak with Aunt Maria or your sisters."

"You don't even have to be in the same room as them." I explained. "It's just that the kids know you and won't be frightened like if I asked Hal or Cal. I just need someone to keep them all in the family room. They're watching TV, just give me thirty minutes with the adults." He finally nodded and trudged through the yard to come inside.

I left him and headed back to the traditional adult living room, setting up the DVD and getting straight in my head what I would say.

Suddenly the front door banged wide open and I reached for my gun. Knowing that Zip and Junior were on the porch I don't know why I thought I needed a gun, but there stood my older, ever fashionable, 5" 6" tall sister Angelia. She had salon red hair, perfectly sculpted blue tipped nails, Neiman Marcus calf-length tan pleated cullotes, light blue, yellow and tan striped fitted shirt and four-inch light yellow heels. Her oversized Alexander Wang bag on her arm. Late as usual with her two point five children and designer coffee cup in her hand still talking on the phone with Oshanna.

She stood in the doorway talking for another moment while we all stared or glared at her and finally hung up the phone before she ushered her little ones inside.

"All the kids are in the family room." Mama told her leading the way.

"Well I heard Ricky was sick and I can't have Shanna and Kendrick around anyone who might be sick." Angelia said as she took her white, perfectly groomed Bichon Frise out of her bag and set him on the floor.

"We'll give them some extra vitamin C. All the kids are going in the Family room. The conversation we are going to have is for adult ears only." I told her.

"Oooo, sounds sexy and mysterious. Do we get to watch a movie too?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Angelia, this is life and death serious. Not a conversation for a three and five-year-old."

"Oooo sounds depressing. Tell me again why I had to drive an hour up here on my yoga day? I'm missing my class for this and play group this afternoon at the park." I didn't even qualify her with an answer. Angelia is two years older than me and a million times more annoying than any of my other sisters. I squatted down in front of her kids.

"You need to go to the family room; all the kids are in there." I told them pointing with my arm.

"Carlos, don't you know anything about talking to children?" Leyla interrupted, bossy sister that she is. She held out her hands to them. "Shanna, Ricky we just put Shark Tales on in the family room. If you hurry you won't miss much of the movie. I'm even going to make some popcorn and bring it in." They were already moving with her before she got to the popcorn part, but we all know Ricky is a sucker for food and will jump through hoops to get it.

"Angelia, we are meeting in the living room, how about everyone head in there so we can get started." I told her.

I led the way to the living room and waited while Angelia and Oshanna talked to each other and sat on the peach and green floral couch. My mother's living room always smelled like rose potpourri and looked like a picture out of an 80's Home and Garden's magazine. My mother sat next to my father, who was dressed for work in blue jeans, a dark green polo shirt with Manoso Construction Inc. embroidered on it, and tan steel-toed work boots. They sat on the matching loveseat side by side while Isabella sat in the bronze leather recliner.

The room's decorations included glass topped coffee and end tables with white Victorian styled lamps covered with little pink roses sitting on white embroidered doilies. We waited while Leyla, in her blue jeans and green Manoso Construction Polo shirt, made two bags of popcorn. She quickly separated it into five different bowls, collected them all in her arms and strode silently back into the family room in her blue and purple Adidas. You could hear the happy cries as she passed them out to the kids.

"Mama, where is _Abuela_ Rosa?" I asked.

"She was up earlier this morning. But when everyone started arriving and it got too noisy she went to lay down for a bit." She told me.

I just stood there at parade rest in front of my family deciding to tell them only as much as it took to get their cooperation. Leyla finally came in and sat on the end of the couch.

"You all know I was in Special Forces for six years and during that time I did a lot of classified work for the government. All of our work in special forces is need to know, no one knows who does it or what they are doing except the top brass. Well in my second to last year someone in the Special Operations Command got let go unexpectedly and in retribution released a bunch of classified documents regarding Spec Op troops and orders. Three years of my records were leaked, as were many others. In fact, hundreds of special operations that have happened over the last twenty-five years were also released. Secret missions that happened the entire time this person had been working in the SOCOM.

"Not to interrupt but what is a SOCOM? And how did this person have access to all of those electronic files to be able to download them?" Isabella asked.

"SOCOM is Special Operations Command. That person had been in the army for 23 years, they were highly trusted, and had Top-Secret clearance that is why they had access to all of those records. They were found to be copying classified documents that they were not supposed to have, which is why they were let go. They were too late, SOCOM didn't realize how many records this person had copies of already."

"Shouldn't that person be in jail?" Leyla asked.

"The story is that when they were let go, their house and home computer were searched and only a few CONFIDENTIAL records were found so they thought they stopped a problem that had just started. CONFIDENTIAL is the lowest level of classified documents way below Top-Secret. It is defined as information that would "damage" national security if publicly disclosed, without the proper authorization and still has to be handled in a secure way. Technically this person was authorized to see these documents, just not authorized to copy and take them out of SOCOM."

"At first, they were charged but they got a really good attorney. Since they had only copied the Top-Secret material and hadn't removed it, those charges got dropped. They made some excuses about the CONFIDENTIAL materials. That they never remove classified information before and didn't realize they were mishandling anything. The charges for having the confidential material were reduced and they were released on bail."

"Weren't they dishonorably discharged?" Angelia questioned.

"That's the best part; between their lawyer and some General they were close to, they got an honorable discharge and a pension for being in the service for over 20 years. No one knows where this person had all the Top-Secret records hidden. But they sold their house, everything in it and left DC. Then a week later classified documents started showing up online."

To be continued…

A/N Thank you everyone who reviewed the first chapter. You motivated me to get the second chapter ready and posted quickly. Thank you to my excellent Beta Mary, and for all her encouragement to start posting this story.

Please let me know what you think of the story so far. How did you like or hate the twist with Stephanie? What do you think of his family?

This is Ranger's family as I have created them. I hope you enjoy their different personalities as much as I did writing them.

Ranger's Family Album – Published at the end of some chapters for reference.

Mother's Mother – Abuela Rosa, Father's Mother – Abuela Sanja Manoso

Mother – Maria Manoso Father – Javier Manoso

Siblings and families in age order

Leyla (35) & Richard Gonzales – Rebecca (Becky) 12, Margaret (Maggie) 10, Richard (Ricky) 7, Michael (Mikie) 5

Angelia (34) & Jordan White – Shanna 5 – Kendrick (Ricky) 3

Ricardo Carlos Manoso (32) – Ranger

Julio Manoso (30) Ex-wife Allysa – Jacob 2

Isabella (27) & Diego Diaz – Chris 8, Shylia 6, Parker 3

Oshanna Manoso (22)

Rachel & Ron Martine – Julie 12, Fredrico (Freddie) 9, Cassandra (Cassie)6


	3. Chapter 3 The Agreement

Chapter 3 – The Agreement

" _Weren't they dishonorably discharged?" Angelia questioned._

" _That's the best part, between his lawyer and some General they were close to they got an honorable discharge and a pension for being in the service for over 20 years. No one knows where this person had all the Top-Secret records. But they sold their house, everything in it and left DC. Then a week later classified documents started showing up online."_

"I don't understand if they had Top-Secret clearance why would they get in trouble in the first place?" Angelia asked.

"Having Top-Secret clearance does not mean they can access anything they want. Most files have a code word restriction and only those people with the correct code word can have access to the information. I have clearance for files that I work on, while I am working on them. After the job is done it may be taken out of my availability. Also, I can't talk to anyone about it except people authorized to access that file. Just because I have Top-Security clearance for my files doesn't mean I can talk to Tank about any of his classified missions. I have to be authorized on his files, likewise I can't talk to him about any of my missions that are classified. This person had worked up to where they had exceptional clearance because they actually worked like a file clerk: entering, filing, classifying, and disseminating the code words of the classified files. Technically even while they worked on them they weren't supposed to be reading them."

"If they were allowed to access the information how were they caught?"

"Well like a librarian they were supposed to be handling the files, not reading or copying them. Someone walked in while they were copying files that they weren't supposed to be copying at that time. Closed missions that they had no reason to be handling. They made some excuse that some General wanted to see the file again, but the person that caught them didn't buy it and called the General on the phone right then and there. They were the one that got them arrested and is the angriest with the way the DOD handled the whole situation."

"So why haven't they caught him?" Isabella asked.

"The classified records were not online for more than three days before word got to SOCOM and they were all taken down, but they were posted anonymously from a coffee shop and they couldn't catch them. Over the years they get regularly posted again, but they are smart and keeps evading being found and captured. They only posts from public places that have no camera's and public computers that can't be traced back to them. Libraries are some of his favorite places."

"So, they leaked all of your information. Why is that causing you problems now?"

"The real problem is that someone that I did a mission against, we'll call him Emilio, found the records of who was involved in the mission stopping him. Even though he escaped, he was ruined, lost his business, all his money and his wife left and took the children. He made a personal vendetta to make every man involved pay with their lives, from the officers that approved the mission to all the men involved in the mission. To my knowledge of the original ten there are only three of us left alive right now. Four of them died in a mission that was sabotaged. The commanding officers that approved the mission were being taken out one at a time, when they realized the deaths were not accidents. I was still in special forces when it was brought to my attention that I was also being targeted.

"Emilio tried to hire men to kill me, the problem was that except when I was at my home base he couldn't find me and while I was there I was too well protected. The person who kept putting up classified documents relisted three years of my missions and Emilio got ahold of them. He decided if he couldn't get to me personally, he would make me useless for our government. My code name, but no information about my family was included with these documents.

"So, he researched me and found out some personal information about me. Like my real name, my date of birth, the last 4 of my social, my location, my army rank and number and where I was stationed, but no information about my family had been found. Because I was 18 when I enlisted, I didn't put down any family information on my forms. No information about my family was found at the time. Because I was not married when I enlisted and divorced so quickly, no information about Rachel or Julie was found either.

"Emilio decided since he couldn't kill me, he would sick other people on me. He started contacting powerful people I had done covert missions against, including people that had been jailed or who were on trial in various countries. He even went as far as contacting the families of people that got killed on my missions and made sure they knew it was me and gave them all of my personal information. But even with all these new people after me, trying to kill me, none succeeded. I became very adept at sensing traps or people intent on killing me.

"My name became well known as Ranger, because I was the commanding Ranger for many missions that were released. My name became so widely known missions I had nothing to do with were being attributed to me. I started going as Ranger but instead of making me worthless and dead, I became somewhat famous and more valuable to the government. As word of things I had done became well-known I was asked for by name.

"When I got out of the army I had a choice. Change my legal name, social, move away and never have any contact with my family ever again or go back to my life and see what danger followed me. Once I got out and I went back to civilian life I visited Abuela Sanja and I came to see you on Easter that year. Then information about my family was found and shared.

"At first I generally stayed away from the family to protect you and became a soldier of fortune doing work to raise capital to start my own business and make an international name for myself. I created a reputation for myself as a badass. A force to contend with. Someone you didn't want to go up against and someone you didn't want to threaten."

"Or you would take them out." Isabella offered.

"Well let's just say I put a hurting on anyone who wanted to hurt me until they backed off. I started Rangeman to help protect myself as well as to protect my family. I was able to hire guys who could watch my back. I continue to do government work that gives me access to information regarding who might be in the states and coming after me. I developed street contacts who knew what's going on in the underground world. I made money to buy safe houses, and one of the first things I did was buy four safe houses here in Newark, just for you, in case anything like this was ever to happen. But years have gone by, threats were removed before they could get close and I never had to use the houses. They were a tax burden and my partners and lawyers wanted me to get rid of them.

"Until now, I always heard of any threats coming to Jersey and intercepted them. I kept my distance from you to protect you. If I wasn't interested in seeing you, it would be obvious that you were not important enough to me to bother with. You would not be seen as a way to get at me. But for over a year now I have been coming to some family gatherings and talking to mama on the phone. It has become apparent that maybe I do care about _mi_ _familia_ and that you could be a way to get to me. I have continued to monitor threats against me, but this one did not show up until they kidnapped and beat Stephanie last night." I queued up the DVD player and turned on the TV. I showed them the break-in at Morelli's, him getting beaten and Steph being taped up. I showed them the clip of Stephanie getting hit in the face and knocked down then I stopped the video. _(my family)_

"I have been told point blank that this and worse will happen to every woman in my family. Julie, mama and all my sisters. I have been told to hide you for your own safety. I have been told you will be beaten, raped, mutilated and eventually killed if they get hold of you and that they are now actively looking for you. This is a game to them, a game to hurt me, because they have tried multiple, quadruple times to kill me and have failed. This is their new way to get to me, worse than death for me; to damage and kill the women in my family. I give you this long explanation because this threat is real, it has been real for years but I have kept it away from you so you could go on with your lives and not be worried about it. But I no longer have that luxury.

"They specifically named Julie, Mama, both abuelas and my four sisters saying that they had your pictures and addresses, and if they don't know your work addresses they would get them the first day you went to work. But they don't seem to want to get everyone at once, they have suggested they are going to take you one or a couple at a time, leave your dead bodies at my doorstep and then go after the next ones on their list.

"The one part of this game that makes the least sense is that they have given me a timeline of two weeks. Basically, if I can hide you and protect you for two weeks they are going to have to move on to other assignments. The truth is that one of the bad guys, who was hired to hurt me is someone I saved years ago. He sent a note wrapped up with Stephanie, that gave me the plan outline. Without his help, I would not know the extent of the danger. Without his help Stephanie would have been seriously hurt last night. Without his help you would have just started disappearing one at a time without me knowing there was a problem until bodies started showing up.

"I no longer have the houses here in Newark. I still have safe houses around Trenton, Atlanta, Boston and Miami but that is where they are going to be looking for you so I want to do the unexpected and get everyone out of town. It will be easier to keep everyone protected if we stay together. Who here has their passport?"

"I do." Said Angelia.

"Me too." Said Isabella.

"I got mine last year so I could go to a fashion show in Paris." Oshanna said.

"I don't." Said Leyla.

"Personally, if everyone had passports I would fly everyone out of the country. Without that option, I'm trying to find someplace remote, safe where we can go have some fun like a mountain resort where we can go fishing, kayaking, swimming, hiking, horseback riding.

"Why can't we go on a cruise like up the Alaskan coast or off Florida or California?" Leyla asked.

"Cruises are definitely on the menu. They are a really good choice because once everyone is on board, everyone is safe and we can relax a little. There are daytime family activities and night time adult activities. There's not a lot of shopping opportunities," I turned and looked directly at my sisters. "Angelia and Oshanna."

"Of course, there is shopping. There is lots of shopping at all the ports of call." Oshanna said.

"Except that you won't be getting off the boat and we will be checking everyone who comes back on board."

"You can't take us on a cruise and not let us get off the boat." Angelia demanded.

"Angelia, your life is at stake. This is not a game. If I say we stay on the boat, we ALL stay on the boat."

"Well then I'm not going." Angelia pouted.

"That's fine. I have a number of safe houses in Trenton for you to stay in. None of them are as fancy as your house, and you won't get to leave there to go shopping or do anything else either. So really having a boat you can freely move around on is a better option." I had never seen her house but knew that she lived in an exclusive neighborhood on the water, in a two story brownstone that was by my mother's description luxurious.

"You can't lock me away!" Angelia shouted like a broker yelling 'sell' across the Wall Street floor.

"Angelia lower your voice. We don't need to get the children excited and yes, under these circumstances for two weeks I get to lock you away."

"No, you can't, in fact I'm leaving this party right now. I don't need to be treated like a criminal, when I'm not the one who committed the crime."

I gave up all pretense of being nice and going slow, shock and reality is the only thing that will get through to them. "Who else thinks that they shouldn't get locked away right now, that running the streets are a good idea? Because I have more video for you to watch if you think that." I flicked the TV back on and queued up the section with the anonymous woman and paused.

"This video was recorded last night. They kidnapped Stephanie and did those things to her and Joe Morelli last night recording it all. Then they came to my office building shot up the front door and left this video behind. I didn't want to show you this because it is very violent and graphic. It is not a movie, they are not pulling their punches. This is real, they did this for real, to a real woman that happens to look like Stephanie. They did this to prove to me that they are here locally ready to carry-out their threats. They did this to prove to me that they can and they would brutalize and kill all of you."

I looked around the room to see who would be too squeamish to watch but all eyes just looked back at me with the wide-eyed curiosity and expectation of a two-year-old exploring a garage they aren't allowed to play in. I hit play and stepped away from the screen. I stood back arms crossed over my chest, watching my family to see their reactions, to see if this could get across to them the seriousness of the situation.

The scene opens with the woman tied across the bed, and they start belting her. I had watched it fast forwarded without the sound. Now with the sound of each crack of the belt, her yelling through her duck-tape and twisting and turning to try to get away it was even more real than when I watched it. When they practically cut the dress off so you can see all the red swelling belt marks, and lifted her dress up over her ass; Oshanna, guessing what was coming next, stood up and walked out of the room.

I knew my mama and Isabella, being nurses and seeing the horrible things that happen to people would watch the whole thing. My father, of course, would watch it to see the gravity of the situation. But I waited to see if loud mouth, I don't want to be locked away Angelia would make it through. The video continued and Angelia set her coffee on the table and sat back into the couch looking ill.

When Mukhtar pulled out his knife, I think several of them were expecting him to slit her throat and were surprised and grossed out when he stabbed her instead. No one said anything when the video went dark and I used the remote to shut the TV off. I called Oshanna back into the room.

"This woman was found this morning dumped under the Quaker Oat bridge by someone who goes around helping the homeless. She did not survive her wounds. Do you understand now why I am taking this seriously, deadly seriously? I may not show it all the time, but I love each of you and I would rather die a thousand times over than have this happen to any of you. I will do anything I can and have to do to make sure you are safe from this threat. They didn't do this for fun, they did this specifically to prove to me that they could and would do this to each of you."

The room was silent as they each thought about what they had just seen and that it could be one of them next.

Finally, Leyla spoke up, "I think a cruise sounds nice. Much nicer than being cooped up in one of your crummy safe houses." She gave me a small smile and I nodded at her.

"Look I want to make this as safe and as pleasurable as possible. That is why an out of the way mountain retreat, or a cruise, maybe an isolated beach house is my goal. Where you can have some freedoms and fun and it can be more like a vacation. But we have to make some rules to keep everybody safe because that is the main purpose." Everyone nodded at me. "First of all, from the time you leave here today you will have a team of bodyguards assigned to you. Do not lose them. They are only there to protect you. Do whatever they tell you to do. If they tell you to wait, wait, if they tell you to walk, walk, if they tell you to run, run."

"Each of you, except Oshanna, has to think not just about yourself, but your kids and your husbands. Joe, the guy in the video, was hospitalized with a broken arm, multiple bruises and a concussion, but after drugging him they could have easily killed him. If they come for you there is no telling what they would do to whomever is with you. If you get taken, it's bad for you, but who is going to take care of your children? What are they going to do if they wake up in the morning and you're gone forever? What are they going to do if you are driving and get run off the road and taken? Or shopping in the middle of the store and you get grabbed and they are left alone?"

"To these men, this is a game. You are just pieces to be taken off the gameboard and they can have as much fun with you, or in their terms torture and rape you as long as they want, before they end you. The win for them is to hurt me. That means being as mean and vicious to you as possible. Recording it all and sending it to me with what's left of you. I'm asking each one of you to give me your trust that I can keep you safe, and that you will follow any rules I make because the rules are only there for your protection. Can you each agree to that?"

No one said anything so I prompted each of them. "Papa you are not in immediate danger, but can you go along with all the rules I lay down?"

"Yes, and I will make sure everyone else does too." He gave Angelia a pointed stare.

"Thanks papa. I appreciate your support but I need to hear this from each of you. Mama, can you go along with the men I assign to you and the rules that I lay down?"

"Yes, _mi'jo_. I understand now and I will listen to you." I nodded to her.

"Leyla, can you obey the men I assign to you and the rules that I lay down?"

"Of course, _hermano_. Only for you." She smiled at me.

"Angelia, this may be the hardest for you and I understand that, but can you follow the men I assign to you and obey the rules that I lay down?"

"Yes, after seeing that video. I can."

"Thank you." I told her.

"Isabella, can you listen to the men I assign to you and follow their direction and obey the rules that I lay down?"

"Yes, anything for you, big brother." She gave me a smile. "As long as we get to have some fun on this adventure."

"I can promise you that there will be some fun."

"Oshanna can you- "

"Of course, I can."

"Will you? With the least amount of arguing as possible? Knowing that I am just trying to keep you safe?"

She gave me a huge sigh and rolled her eyes. "Yes, I will. I don't like it. But I would rather live and not have any of those horrible things happen to me." Her face scrunched up and I knew someone would tell her the parts of the video she missed.

"I have to get my travel assistant on the line and find out what is available. She should have some options for me by lunch. I am asking everyone to hunker down here until we have a plan of action in place. When you leave here, each of you will have two bodyguards until we leave town. We can order out food from where ever you want, and my men can go get it. Lunch is on me, so Mama doesn't have to worry about feeding everyone. Then we can talk about what choices there are and make some real decisions." Everyone murmured their assent and I left for the backyard, where I could talk in private.

I stepped out into the back covered patio and scanned the backyard, where the three maple trees had fresh baby green leaves on them, the grass was coming back to fill in under the well-used, white and blue swing set. I turned around to face the back of the house and admired the new growth of plants that didn't get as much sun as the ones in the front and hadn't started flowering yet. I looked up at the mostly clear hazy brown sky and pulled out my phone. It didn't look like rain right now but by this afternoon that all might change. I pressed the speed dial for one of the other important women in my life.

"Skylar, my woman, how are you? How is Danny doing? How'd he like his birthday present?"

"Ranger, nice to hear from you again. Danny loved his present. I sent you a picture by text."

"Yes, I got your text, but I like to hear in person that he squealed with delight and played with it non-stop till bedtime-"

"He doesn't squeal, he's not a little girl."

"I know he's not a little girl-"

"But Yes, he played with that GI Joe Command Center for a week straight, and kept sneaking out of bed to play with it some more at night." I watched a finch land on one of the many bird feeders hanging from the porch and trees.

"Glad to hear that he liked it. I spent hours picking out just the right thing."

"You mean you had one of your men or that housekeeper of yours pick it out."

"No, I actually went to the mall, and then shopped online, read all the reviews on half a dozen different toys."

"As busy as you are I can't believe you would go to all that trouble."

"Well five is a special age, and I wanted him to have something really special."

"Well thank you, it was appreciated. So, tell me why you are really calling. You don't just call to catch up."

"I have a big order this time, probably the most difficult thing I have ever asked of you. Forty people. Full security requirements."

"You want me to find a place for everyone to stay? How are you traveling? How long is this 'vacation'?"

"We need a private jet leaving from Newark. Two weeks leaving tomorrow. My choice would be a remote cabin in the mountains, miles away from anything, but this time it is personal. This is for my family so it has to not only be safe but fun too. A private beach resort, a quiet mountain retreat with lots of activities, or a fourteen-day cruise."

"That's a lot of options for me to check out. You said this is family. Tell me the ages, who is being protected?"

Suddenly the sliding glass door opened and Lester exploded from the house, a grim set to his face. He gave me a look that could kill and stormed past me to the far reaches of the backyard.

"Ten targets, nine women and one 12-year-old."

"Oh shit, they are targeting Julie?"

"-and Stephanie, my mother, my four sisters, and my grandmothers."

"Wow, that's a death wish if I ever heard one. A death wish larger than shooting at an angry grizzly bear with a b-b-gun. A death wish bigger than going over Niagara Falls in a cardboard box. A death wish stronger than jumping the Grand Canyon on a skateboard." She broke off laughing.

"Are you done?" I asked feeling my lips twitch.

"A death wish wilder than trying to tame a wild tiger with a pencil and a ball of string," she continued, "A death wish crazier than pissing off the Sons of Anarchy by dumping a pitcher of beer over their heads and trying to race away on a ten-speed without a helmet. A death wish stupider than swimming in shark infested waters that you just filled with buckets of chum." She broke off laughing in a deep melodious peel that sounded like the ringing of a xylophone.

I just tried not to make a face at her jokes knowing that she was more accurate than she knew. After several minutes of her endless laughter I tried to break her spell.

"Skylar, my hilarious woman, catch your breath. I have some serious work for you to do." I tried to get her attention again.

"I'm here, I'm focused, that's just the best joke I have heard in a while." She broke off laughing again. "I'm assuming this is a team after you?"

"At least six men."

"Only six? They would be better off playing Russian roulette with five bullets in the cylinder. It's going to be less painful than whatever you are going to do when you catch up to them."

"It's their boss who should be worried. I'm going to take his men apart one at a time. But when I catch up to him he will regret ever looking in their direction."

"That's a mess I don't need to see," she said, "now what did you need again besides a few wooden boxes?" She questioned me as I smirked. "Do you need me to call a few old men? I know most of the old gang has retired but for this they would gladly sharpen their rusty old kitchen knives, clean the cobwebs out of their guns, gather up the grenades they have rolling around the garage." She stated.

"No, I have enough men to deal with the situation. With this many targets I feel like the best thing to do is to get everyone out of town. So that there is no one left behind to become a target."

"Ok tell me what I have to work with." She said.

"We need to leave town tomorrow and be gone until at least Friday two weeks from now. I want a private jet that can seat at about fifty with at least two bathrooms. Too many women and children not to have two bathrooms. Some place State-side not everyone has a passport. Eight rooms for my family, as big as you can find several of them have a lot of kids."

"Ok break it down for me person by person." She told me.

"My grandmothers Rosa Escalante and Sanja Manoso. They can probably bunk together. My parents Javier and Maria Manoso. My eldest sister Leyla and Richard Gonzales, they have four kids: Becky 12, Maggie 10, Ricky 7, Michael 5. My next eldest sister Angelia and Jordan White, 2 kids: Shanna 5, Ricky 3. My younger sister Isabella and Diego Diaz, 3 kids: Chris 8, Shylia 6, Parker 3. My youngest sister Oshanna Manoso, she's 22 but acts 15. I don't have confirmation yet but I am going to ask Rachel and Ron Martine to come. 3 kids: Julie 12, Freddie 9, Cassie 6. Me, Stephanie and 15 of my men. Even if Ron and Rachel don't come I'm going to insist on Julie joining us."

"Ok I am counting forty-two people. But only fifteen men to protect ten targets? Is that going to be enough?"

"Ok make it forty-seven and I will bring twenty men. My men can bunk four to a hotel room, and in some cases six to a room, because some will be working nights and sleeping days. If it's a cruise and there are six of them we need their cabins cleaned twice a day. Once at eight am and once at seven pm. My sister's families need suites. Oshanna doesn't need a suite book one if they have it, but she can be underground with my men as far as I am concerned, of course book my parents and grandmothers a suite if they have it."

"Ok that is the family what about you? And where do you want your men?"

"If you can find a nice cabin inside or ocean view, with a king size bed book it for me and Stephanie. Book my men as close to the suites as you can. I care more about location than price. No price on this one you have my personal AmEx card, book everything on it, nothing to Rangeman." I took a deep breath as I viewed a robin flying down to the ground looking for morning worms or maybe some twigs to build a nest.

"You're paying for this personally? It's going to add up fast with that many people. How did you find out about this? I would have thought you would just go take them out."

"Well usually I have advanced notice, but I just found out about the threat last night. They recorded a demonstration and dropped it to me. Not dinner date material."

"Like a group job, everyone does Debbie?"

"More along the lines of a triple x horror."

"So, they are slashing and dashing as well. Are we talking Halloween and Jason?"

"Yeah, throw in a boxing match too, it was that bad. How fast can you have something?"

"Give me a couple of hours. I will call you when I have some concrete options."

"I told them by lunch."

"Well that's pushing it. I might need more time than that."

"If it comes to that, we'll have a late lunch." I told her.

"Ok, I'll fire up my computer, burn up the phone lines and see what I can find."

"Just work your magic, you always do. Thanks sweetheart. Good bye." And I disconnected. I took a deep breath. The hard part was over. They have all agreed to protection. Now we just need some place fun and remote. I wish my siblings were more the outdoorsy type. But my sisters are more Mall bunnies than, hillside hikers. I turned to go into the house and suddenly Lester was there.

"Why did you have to tell them all that stuff about the leaked information? Why did you have to tell them why you go by Ranger? Why haven't I seen the gory video that they can't stop talking about? You threw me to the wolves the minute your little meeting was over and you didn't warn me. I have been asked a thousand questions, none of which I have answers to and they cornered me like a treed raccoon and wouldn't let me leave. That's the last time you get me into that house until you get your women settled." Then he stormed off into the nether regions of the backyard.

If he wasn't my cousin and this wasn't family I would take him to the mats for that little outburst. But knowing I forgot he was inside and didn't warn him the meeting was over I have to give him a pass. I went back into the house to face the melee. My mother was in the kitchen with my sisters and Abuela Rosa, talking and pulling out food.

"Mama, you don't have to cook. We can order out and-"

"Well, _me'jo_ ," My mother put her hands on each of my cheeks and looked me in the eyes. "I just went food shopping on Saturday and I have a fridge full of food and if we are going away I might as well feed the masses." She released my face and I gave her a kiss on the cheek.

" _Gracias_ mama."

"Buenos días, Abuela Rosa." I also kissed her on her cheek. "¿Cómo te sientes hoy?" _(Good morning, Grandma Rosa. How are you feeling today?)_

"Mejor, estoy escuchando acerca de todo este problema, los hombres viniendo después de nosotros. ¿Por qué querrían herir a una anciana?" _(Better, I am hearing about all this trouble, men coming after us. Why would they want to hurt an old lady?)_

"Abuela, a estos hombres se les paga por herir a todas las mujeres que amo, incluido a ti. Te prometo que te protegeré. Estoy planeando llevar a todo el mundo para que todos estén a salvo." _(Grandma, these men are being paid to hurt me by hurting the women I love including you. I promise you I will protect you. I am planning on taking everyone away so you will all be safe.)_

"Pero lo que sucede cuando volvamos no vendrán después de nosotros." _(But what happens when we get back won't they just come after us then.)_

"Mis hombres los encontrarán mientras estamos fuera y los harán regresar a sus países. Una vez que son deportados no pueden hacerte daño." _(My men will find them while we are gone and get them sent back to their countries. Once they are deported they can't hurt you.)_

She looked at me with piercing brown eyes as if she was seeing into my soul; seeing if I was telling the truth. I knew this was her way and let her scrutinize me for several long minutes.

"Si nieto, voy a venir con la familia. Haces lo que debes hacer para mantenernos a salvo." _(Yes grandson, I will come with the family. You do what you need to do to keep us safe.)_ I nodded at her. It was her blessing to kill or do whatever I had to do to protect the family and she would go to mass and light a candle for me because that was also her way.

I needed a place to hide until I had some options or answers. "I have to go check on my men." I walked out of the kitchen without a backwards glance. I walked out the front door to where Zip and Junior were standing on the front porch and just took a position next to them. Watching the few cars that traveled this residential road. Watching the newly growing leaves flit around in the Maple tree planted twenty-five years ago in our front yard. Watching a twenty-something neighbor, I have never seen before jog up the street. Watching an older woman walk her two large dogs.

I was trying to stand here on high alert watching everything as it went by, but I had an uneasy feeling in my gut. I felt anxious like my skin was crawling trying to get away from danger, but I couldn't nail it down. Was something bad going to happen to my family? Was it just the whole unsettling situation? Would it go away once we had a plan of action in place. After a few minutes, I couldn't keep standing still.

I decided to walk the perimeter and check in with each of my teams. I grabbed my radio, turned it on and stepped off the porch onto the sidewalk that turned left and led to my father's company truck, parked in the driveway, in front of the white two-car garage, but then I veered off it walking across the yard to my SUV that was parked across the street two-houses down. I was half way across the green manicured yard when machine gun fire broke out from the gray roof across the street, spraying the front yard at my feet.

To be continued…

Thank you to my wonderful Beta Sassysaint. If you haven't read her stories they are wonderful and worth your time to read. She has a new one "Nothing worth having is easy". I don't have a posting schedule planned. The first ten chapter's will go up faster because they are mostly written, just needing some editing. After that I'm going to try to post a chapter a week.

All Spanish conversations done by Google translate so if they say something totally off I apologize now, but please nicely let me know. Please read and review let me know if you're still enjoying this story.

Mother's Mother – Abuela Rosa Escalante, Father's Mother – Abuela Sanja Manoso

Mother – Maria Manoso Father – Javier Manoso

Siblings and families in age order

Leyla (35) & Richard Gonzales – Rebecca (Becky) 12, Margaret (Maggie) 10, Richard (Ricky) 7, Michael (Mikie) 5

Angelia (34) & Jordan White – Shanna 5, Kendrick (Ricky) 3

Ricardo Carlos Manoso (32) – Ranger

Julio Manoso (30) Ex-wife Allysa – Jacob 2

Isabella (27) & Diego Diaz – Chris 8, Shylia 6, Parker 3

Oshanna Manoso (22)

Rachel & Ron Martine – Julie 12, Fredrico (Freddie) 9, Cassandra (Cassie)6


	4. Chapter 4 Special Project

Chapter 4 Special Project

 _I decided to walk the perimeter and check in with each of my teams. I grabbed my radio, turned it on and stepped off the porch onto the sidewalk that turned left and led to my father's company truck parked in the driveway, in front of the white two-car garage, but then I veered off it walking across the yard to my SUV. I was half way across the green manicured yard when machine gun fire broke out from the gray roof across the street, spraying the front yard at my feet._

Without thinking I ran back to the tree in the front of the house, while Zip and Junior both dove for cover in the bushes. While Hal and Cal were out of the vehicle racing towards the gunfire.

The hail of bullets followed me and raked across the front of the house, blowing holes in the large family room window, and across the front door. It dawned on me, at that moment, that if they had wanted to hit me, I was an easy target walking the lawn. Now they were using my running as an excuse to shoot up the place. All of the children were in that front room and I had to draw their fire away. I pulled my gun and ran down the lawn, yelling, firing suppression fire at the roof line of the house across the street. Immediately the two heads I saw above the roofline disappeared and all fire at the house ceased.

I yelled into my radio. "Backyard stay alert and in position. Front cover the roofline but hold your fire unless the moles pop back up. Patrol call 911 report gun fire at this address." By now I was at the neighbor's six-foot wooden fence line. Hal and Cal nearly pulling it down getting over it. I vaulted it holding on near the house where it was bolted. Only to find whoever had been on the roof was long gone. Then Cal cried out pointing and three houses down we could hear barking and saw two men in long sleeved shirts, yellow leather construction gloves and jeans, climbing the fence to get away.

I signaled to Cal and Hal to split up going back to the street to watch for the getaway car, while I took off again parkour style, hopping over fences in one jump. My hands on the top of the fence, swinging my legs over in one smooth move. Hitting the ground on the other side and running to the next fence line to do it again. I could now see the next several fences were four-foot-high chain link with two large dogs on the other side already barking at me.

Whichever way the gunmen went, I could no longer see them up ahead climbing fences. Instead of hopping the fence with the dogs. I hopped the fence to my left and came out on the street. Hal was jogging back down the street to me. "Silver Bronco. Too far away to get the license plate. There was one guy driving it and it just veered in picked up the other two as they came running from the backyard and took off."

I pulled out my phone. "Hector, priority search, Silver Ford Bronco. Approximately 09:27 at the corners of Hucklebee and Tanner. Search all cameras you can find."

"The car was probably stolen anyway." I told Hal, "Get Cal, secure the scene until the cops get here. I didn't see them carrying a gun. Check if it is still on the roof. I never saw it in their hands. I'm going back through the yards looking for it. I want to find it preferably before the police get here." I got on the radio as I walked through the backyards looking for a weapon.

"Cal, get a finger print kit. We're looking for the weapon but we might be able to find prints on the ladder they used to climb up to the roof with."

"Zip, this is the hardest job of all. Go inside make sure everyone is OK and tell my father, he's probably in the kitchen; that there were two gunmen across the street that fired on the house. No one outside was injured. Tell him they ran away and I am searching for the gun and men now. Tell them Carlos will answer all their questions when he gets back. Walk around the front of the house with him and record the damage. Tell him Carlos will pay to have everything fixed. Call Tank and tell him of the shooting and the size of the safety glass needed to fix the front window. I want it replaced today."

"All teams, we had two men on the roof across the street shooting an automatic rifle at the house. We returned fire. No one was injured. Gun men got away. Waiting for police. Fleeing car was a silver Ford Bronco, plates unknown. Hold your positions. Keep alert. This may have been a diversion for a different attack."

I stopped two houses down, drawn to the line of bushes along the back-privacy fence that look disturbed. The line of four-foot-high, freshly trimmed pink azaleas was pushed away from the fence about halfway down the line. I couldn't get right up on them because of the white, pink, and purple flowering viburnum lined up in front of the bushes. But looking down there was a large foot print stomping down two of the pink flowering plants. I got down looking at waist level and there wedged between the bushes and fence was a Russian RPK, machine gun.

I quickly walked back to the house that was across from my parents and Cal was dusting a ten-foot ladder that was propped up against the back of the house. I looked at the ladder and saw there was writing down the side that read 'Manoso Construction Inc.' I took a deep breath knowing I was going to have to bring my father over to figure out where the ladder came from and knowing if these guys were smart they would have been wearing gloves for all of it. A patrol car pulled up and double parked in front of my parent's house.

"Cal the police are here, pack up and bag a few shell casings, then guard the ladder and roof so it is not disturbed. Hal go to the backyard two houses down and guard the azalea bushes against the wooden fence. There is a RPK stashed there." I walked quickly out to meet the officers wanting to put aside any concern with all the big men in black, carrying guns, patrolling the grounds.

I greeted them, gave a short explanation that right now the entire Manoso family was under the protective care of RangeMan due to threats against the family and that there were ten RangeMan employees, all badged and wearing weapons, guarding the house and street. That fifteen minutes ago there was gun fire from the roof across the street and I had a man guarding the scene. Now that the police were here both my parents came out of the house slowly, followed by my sisters and some of the boys who, like most young boys, are fascinated with guns and police.

I walked the police to my father and introduced them. While they talked I politely requested all the women to go back inside the house, reminding them that dead is dead whether from a bullet or longer more painful means. Suddenly my mama cried out and pointed to my right calf, where there was a hole and blood obviously on my leg. I pulled the pant leg out of my boot to find a hole going straight through my pant leg and a gash on the side of my leg that was bleeding.

"It's nothing mama, just a scratch." I assured her. "Now will you please go inside." Once I got everyone inside I followed my dad as he showed the policemen the damage. There were at least three holes in the big window and I called Chet and Hank to get a crime lab kit and camera out of the back of the Cayenne and start inside and retrieve the bullets. The police were waiting on a crime lab unit to arrive and wanted everyone out of the residence and away from the crime scene, but I nipped that in the bud.

"Officers the men targeting the Manosos' are not here legally. You're not going to find them in the system. We aren't going to be pressing charges. I will have my men process the scene but right now it is more important that the Manosos' have a safe place to be protected than it is for you to turn this into a sealed-off crime scene. If you want to write up a report for the shooting, that's fine. If you want to call it a neighborhood disturbance that has resolved itself and leave, that works too. I know your job is to keep the citizens of this town safe, but our job is to keep this family safe and trust me no one is going to be shooting up this house again. If you need me to I will talk to your Chief and explain that my men are taking control of the scene."

They made a few calls over the radio and informed me that a Sergeant was on the way to talk to me. While we were waiting, I braved the inside, expecting to be grilled like a hostile witness by the prosecution, to face my mama and sisters. Inside I found my _Abuela_ Rosa in the kitchen helping mama fix sandwiches and soup for lunch. Three of my sisters were in the living room and descended upon me.

"Nobody said anything about getting shot." Angelia started in.

"Now are you going to tell us we can't even go outside?" Oshanna complained.

"Are you alright? I heard you got shot." Isabella asked me.

"The shooting was their calling card. Just their way of saying ' _Hi, we know you are in there._ ' If they had wanted to they could have done more damage but most of the shots were fired into the ground and the front of the house. Not really inside it. Very little damage was done."

"Little damage? little damage?! The TV was shot up and it could have been the kids. Now the TV doesn't work anymore right in the middle of the movie and the kids are starting to climb the walls." Angelia squawked. I immediately walked to the family room and surveyed the situation. The family room was the room for all of the grandkids, with a big brown leather couch that had a quilted throw my mother made when we were kids. Several brightly colored pillows and a matching brown leather chair with a scarred very old wooden coffee table rounding out the furniture in the room.

This was set back away from the TV, leaving the main wooden floor open for the large oval woven rug that had pictures of children from all around the world in a circle holding hands, including of all things, a penguin. The toys were lined along the left wall in racked cloth baskets and primary colored buckets. The rest of the wall was taken up by large book shelves, stacked with hundreds of children's books from Hop on Pop to the last Harry Potter.

The rug and room had been arranged ten years ago after Leyla had her second child and my mama and _Abuela_ Rosa, and sometimes Oshanna after school, started watching her kids while she worked at my dad's construction company part-time. Now _Abuela_ Rosa watches the kids for an hour after school until she gets off work. The old tube TV we'd had since I was a boy. We spent hours in front of it Saturday mornings while mama slept in, the one day of the week she got to.

Now I watched as Chet and Hank, after taking pictures of each bullet were trying to dig them out of the back of the TV. I called Erik and Martin to the house. I met them at the front door and walked them out to the back yard, where most of the children were running around playing on the play set, the dog following them around nipping at their heels, some throwing a frisbee, and some of the boys were involved in a made-up game involving swords. I told them they were to relieve Lester and Woody as the backyard team.

"New assignment. The TV just got shot up." I told Lester and Woody. "Go buy a new TV and come back and set it up." I handed him a RangeMan credit card. Lester's face lit up but instead of heading for the house he walked around to the side yard.

"I'm going through the fence. You can't get me back in that house until I'm loaded down with something that will make them happy to see me."

I called Tank for an update. Gave him the nuts of the shooting and asked where we stood with the window being replaced. "We need it done by this afternoon. As soon as they fix the front door send that crew over here to replace this window. Also, if you haven't already: start an expense account for this case. Label it the Manoso Protection Detail. Charge everything including man hours back to me. Some things are going to show up on the RangeMan card, charge them back to me."

"You're paying for this personally? If we run it through the accounts I can write some of it off."

"I know we will write off some of it but I want a full tally and then we will start with deductions. The plan is to get everyone out of town by tomorrow. Skylar is getting me options. Expect a jet that can fly fifty. I want twenty men along."

"You sure you want twenty men? Knowing your family, I can't decide if that is too many or not enough."

"It is going to depend on the accommodations how many men can go. Lester is the only must go. Pick six-night shift to go and we will work out the rest of the personnel tonight. When are Boston and Atlanta flying in."

"Both groups will be on the ground by 1430."

"Ok, at 1300 send over the next protection detail. Chet and Hank are processing the shooting. We found the weapon, it is a Russian RPK, they must have brought hardware with them." I stared at a little brown squirrel that was carefully trying to climb down the wire and make it to the bird feeder that was hanging in the tree.

"You think they were trying to get lucky and take out some of the family at random?"

"No, they were just saying _'Hi'_. They could have mowed me down, but instead wasted time shooting at my feet. It could have been bad; three bullets went into the room the kids were playing in and destroyed the TV. We now have better street coverage. Junior, Zip and I were right there watching everything when they just popped up and opened fire."

"Junior and Zip were watching the front and didn't pick them up?"

"Well I was standing right next to them. In fact, I started walking across the lawn when they opened fire. If they had wanted to ventilate me I would have been gone."

"Is this going to force you to move the family?"

"I'm waiting for the sergeant to arrive and plead our case with him to stay in the house. I'll show him the video if I have to. It is more important to protect the people in the house than to protect a crime scene, where no one got injured, and the culprits are foreign nationals who are not in the system and probably didn't leave any evidence behind."

"What did your mom say about the TV?"

"She hasn't said anything to me yet. Lester and Woody are after a new TV. Hopefully that and the new window will make the people in the house relax a little." I said.

"Your family relaxed? I've seen full on riots have less energy. How are they taking the shooting?" Tank questioned.

"Everyone here was already wound up. Now they are crawling out of their skins except for the kids who are running around and playing like nothing has happened. Update on the shooting there."

"It's roped off, waiting for the crime lab. When they come I want to give them a full copy of the video. Since the girl's body was found." Tank said.

"Sure, cut out the part where Stephanie gets pumped full of heroin. She doesn't need that going around." I answered.

"None of the men from the video have been identified."

"Keep me updated." I told him and I disconnected. Now back to the fray. I walked back into the house and everyone except papa was there in the kitchen.

"Does anyone have any questions about the shooting?" I asked them.

"Who was shooting?" Leyla asked.

"The same men who have made the threats against the family."

"Why aren't you dead?" Angelia snidely remarked.

"They weren't shooting to kill. This was the equivalent of them knocking on the door and saying _'Hello, we know you are in there.'_ " I explained.

"That doesn't make any sense. If it is you they are trying to make hurt, why not just shoot you outright and move on to the next target?' Oshanna said.

"One thing we know is that they are recording this for the man who's bankrolling them. This may just be part of the show they are putting on for him."

My father stepped into the kitchen. "Carlos the Sergeant is here." I excused myself and went out front to meet him. Sergeant Markowitz stood proudly in his starched uniform, full gun belt on, radio clipped to his left side still squawking, on the porch surveying the damage.

"I'm sorry son, but this house is going to have to be evacuated for several days while it is processed as a crime scene."

"Sir with all due respect, I would like you to hear me out. We have extenuating circumstances that require this family to be in protective care. Their lives are in imminent danger. This shooting could very well be the bad guy's way of forcing us to move them so they get a chance to grab the intended targets. These guys are foreign nationals, they are not going to be in your system, and they are ex-military. They won't have left any clues behind. All the crime lab can do is log how many bullets were shot and where they landed. There are not going to be any fingerprints and no one got a clear view of the shooters. I was standing out in the middle of the yard when the shooting started and they could have mowed me down, instead they shot at the ground around me. My men were standing on the porch. If they had wanted to take them out they could have. Instead they just loaded up the grass and raked low down on the house, where they couldn't get anybody. The only thing they killed was the twenty-five-year-old TV. If you come inside I will show you the threat.

"First of all, they sent this video last night, I will tell you now it is very graphic. This is a copy. The Trenton Police have the original because the house that got broken into was Detective Morelli's." I turned on the video. My father left the room when they got to the belting part, but Sergeant Markowitz stayed through the whole thing. Then I showed him the note and explained what it said.

"Sergeant I understand your job is to protect the community. Let me protect my family. They are in danger because of me and I can't risk their lives for evidence in a case that will never go to trial. If these guys are ever found they will go up on charges in Trenton for what they did to this woman. She was found this morning dead."

"Mr. Manoso I understand the situation better now and you have made a good point about keeping your family here in protective custody. But somehow, I need this crime scene wrapped up. I can't just leave bullets lying all over the yard."

"We have that handled sir. We have an official crime scene kit." I walked him back outside and showed him the kit in Chet's hand and the camera around Hank's neck. "this is Chet and Hank. They are trained in evidence collection. We will photograph everything and collect all evidence using proper crime scene technique and I will bring in a metal detector to make sure we get every bullet up. These are my nieces and nephews that play out here so I take this very seriously."

"I'm going to leave these officers here to supervise and take all the evidence back to lock up and log it in." Sergeant Markowitz said.

"Thank you, sir." I shook his hand and watched him walk through the yard. I pulled out my phone. "Lester pick up a X-Terra metal detector .70 or .705 on your way back. If you can't find one that refined pick up one that can detect gold, that will be sensitive enough."

"Where am I supposed to find a metal detector in Newark?"

"A sporting goods store."

"Where is the nearest sporting goods store?" He harassed me.

I sighed internally and disconnected.

"Officers," I called out to the two men who were loitering on the edge of the yard. "This is Chet and Hank. They are going to process this crime scene while you watch and turn all the evidence over to you to be logged into your system."

Then I went into the house. "Papa can I talk to you outside for a moment." When he joined me I said, "Will you follow me to the neighbor's yard." I led the way to the back of the neighbor's house, where Hal had the wooden gate opened and showed him the ladder.

"Dad this was here when we got to the scene. Obviously, it belongs to your company. Do you know what job it was registered to and when it was taken?"

He pulled out his phone and talked to someone quietly for several minutes. "It was loaded up on a truck this morning. It was taken off of a renovation job at Fourth and Broadway. They noticed it missing about an hour ago."

"When the cops come over, I'm going to tell them I borrowed it from you so we could get to the roof. Cal has already swept it for prints, but I expect all we are going to find are your crew. When we are done you can take it with you, or have some of your men come and pick it up."

"Thanks."

I opened my phone, "Hector second search: cameras around Forth and Broadway a ten-foot ladder was stolen from a construction site. We are looking for images of the men and whatever vehicle they used." I disconnected.

"I'm going up on the roof to survey the situation. Do you want to come?" I offered. Papa nodded to me. There wasn't much on the roof but a pile of casings. The fact that they didn't bother to take them let me know there is no evidence there. The last hope was the gun itself. They may have used gloves when they fired the gun. But they probably didn't when they loaded it in their car and when they last cleaned it. I went and got the Cayenne and drove it up the street, one house past where the gun was.

I got gloves and hopped the fence to find Hal standing at parade rest in front of the spring green bushes looking uneasy. "I'm glad you're here to take this thing. I'm worried the home owners are going to come home and call the police on me."

"I've got it now." I put on the gloves and carefully stepped between flowers and reached over the azalea bushes to find the gun wedged into the fence. I'm hoping they stashed it because they were planning to come back for it later, and maybe there is some evidence on it they didn't want us to find. I just didn't know if I should spare the man power to watch this backyard.

I opened the fence and stowed the gun in the back of the Cayenne. Relieved Hal to go back to his position in the vehicle and debated on how I could have two men watch this backyard. "Tank," I quickly called, "send an extra team over now, I have a new assignment. Two men, two vehicles." They could watch it from Nateville, the street that dead ends one house down where the person only had a chain link fence. I sent Hal around to start watching the street and the backyard for men returning.

I returned to Cal and told him to join Hal once they started processing the roof. I crossed the street and told Chet and Hank to go process the roof so it would be done before the owners came home since the yard and front of the house was going to take a while and they had to wait for the metal detector.

Finally, everything was taken care of, so I got the medical kit out of the Cayenne and lifted my black pant leg. The one inch gash, angled down from mid-calf towards the ground, had stopped bleeding a while ago and was all crusty with dried blood. I cleaned it thoroughly, causing it to start bleeding again. Bandaged it and called it done.

I went to stand up on the porch with Zip and Junior not wanting to brave the hornets' nest that was waiting inside until I had some travel plans I could discuss with them. I pulled out my phone and walked away from the porch. "Skylar, my lovely, beautiful, most fantastic woman."

"Ranger you're too impatient. I've only been at this a few hours I don't have anything solid for you yet."

"What do you mean you don't have anything for me yet?"

"So far I have possibilities but nothing that is a solid yes. Your men are the problem. There is just not any place big enough for the whole group."

"What do you have so far?"

"Isolated mountain cabin in Colorado with 12 rooms. More than half of your men will have to sleep outside, they would have to share bathrooms with the guy's inside. On the plus side it is safe and remote and there is everything you can do outdoors. Hiking, fishing, biking, kayaking, campfires, smores, star watching. There are other activities in the area like white-water rafting, horse-back riding and four wheeling"

"I found a Dude ranch in Wyoming, plenty of room for the family. Only two rooms for men, but has offered bunks in the longhouses the ranch hands sleep in."

"I found a group of three beach houses in California. There's enough room, but they are only available for ten days. You would have to be out by next Friday."

"In Hawaii, I found special Wedding grounds that can hold everyone. It's three buildings. A chapel, a Reception room, and a very large eighteen room guest house. It's supposed to be for Brides and Grooms and their families to all come to Hawaii and get married and have a vacation. It is right on a private beach for beach weddings and the couple that booked it canceled two days ago, so I can reserve it till next Thursday. I have contacted the next Bride and Groom to see if I can pay them to get married elsewhere."

"Cruises – all I can find that have enough room are seven day cruises. One going up the Alaska coast. Monday to Sunday, it's seven days but only six nights. One going up the California coast, Sunday to Sunday and one touring the Hawaiian Islands. Leaves Saturday night till next Saturday morning. All longer cruises are too booked up."

"So, you see I am finding a lot of options but none that will carry you through your two weeks. At some point, you would have to be in a regular hotel.

"That's all a good start. I'm thinking California, the houses for a week and then a cruise."

"You will be happy about this. I have already reserved a jet. It is a little larger than what you specified but it is much nicer, it has a range of 4300 miles, and it can fly over 1300 mph, twice as fast as anything else on the market. So, you can get across the country in three hours instead of six."

"Ok." I just waited for her to continue.

"Now here is the best part. It seats one hundred people and every seat is first class."

"I thought all the Concordes had been retired. If they haven't been, they have to be dangerously old."

"Thought you would never ask. As it happens in 2009 they refurbished five of the remaining fleet and tried to put them back into service. They upgraded the engines, made them faster and able to travel further. But then the economy tanked and once again people were not willing to pay the higher price of getting there faster so they took them out of service in 2011 and have been renting them out privately. Well two of them were bought by private people who fly around the globe too much and need to get there faster. One stripped out over half the seats and put in a bedroom with a full bath. Of the three that are left, this one has been in France. It is perfectly maintained and has been hardly used. It is in top shape and still the fastest commercial plane around."

"Definitely a winner. Thank you, Skylar. You're a life saver. In this case, it is my ass you are saving here."

"and a very nice ass it is. We wouldn't want anything to happen to it."

"I'm going to give you one hour to see what else you can find and then I am going to give the options to my family."

"You are going to let the family decide?"

"It will make them much more cooperative for the trip if they have some choice and input. Thank you for all your hard work my most wonderful, excellent travel agent in the whole world." I told her.

"Thank you, Ranger. I will see what else I can round up."

I told her goodbye and she disconnected.

I dialed my cell phone again. "Tank I have a special project for Bones. First, I am going to be sending him pictures and information. He is to put them together in a digital family album for the men to study. Second, make up fake profiles for each family member, nationalities: Italian, Greek, French. Make Oshanna's and Angelia's Russian or better yet Chinese, they can still be sisters. Third. Make everyone a Driver's license and issue them a RangeMan Credit Card, five-thousand-dollar limit on each. Fourth, get sixteen nice phones, not burner phones, phones that can take good pictures. Like those new Samsung Edge 8 phones that are waterproof since chances are we are going on a cruise or staying on a beach." I have a Samsung Edge 7 the first waterproof phone and it has been a good phone. There is going to be a riot when I try to take their phones so I need something nice to replace them with, or my sisters will have my nads. "Fifth, send someone to a kiosk in the mall or where ever you have to go to get twenty different cases for them, I don't need fights over who's phone is who's. Sixth, Put a tracker on every phone and a RFT tag on every ID and Credit Card."

"You're going all out for your family. Are you sure you want to do all this?"

"They are being forced into this, so I'm trying to make it as pleasant as possible. As much like a real family vacation as I can."

"Where are you taking them?"

"Still unknown. So far we have a jet so I want to be flying everyone out by tomorrow afternoon."

"Copy that." And he disconnected.

I called Ella to ask if Stephanie was up yet, but she hadn't heard from her or heard that she had left. There was nothing for me to do but wait, something I normally did extremely well but today I just wanted to get the plans in place and my family settled. When I went back inside they had the folding table and chairs out on the back patio and were preparing to feed all the kids lunch. I looked at my watch: almost noon.

I checked in with all my men letting them know their replacements would be here at two. Then they would be going to the airport to pick up the men flying in from Boston and Atlanta.

I got my phone out and primed. I walked out on the back porch and announced, "I need to take a photo of everyone, one at a time, in the kitchen. Leyla, can I start with you? Then I will do each of your kids. I'm going to take them by family."

One at a time, I documented my family, typed in: name, age and relationship on each and added them to the file. While I was doing this the new patrol to watch the neighbor's backyard showed up and I sent them around to relieve Cal and Hal.

I was half way through Isabella's family when Julio, my brother, the _joda_ walked in. "Heard you're fucking up not just your own but everyone's life again." He started in. _(pain in the ass)_

To be continued…

A/N Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for all the reviews. They are all greatly appreciated and have really encouraged me.

Huge THANK YOU to my Beta Mary Sassysaint. She does wonderful thing with my words and makes them more readable for you. You Rock!

Oh no… Rangers finally getting things a little more settled and his brother shows up to heat up and stir the pot he's cooking in. Where do you think they should go? Colorado? Wyoming? Alaska? California? Hawaii? If you were on lock down where would you want to go? Please read and review.


	5. Chapter 5 The Plan

Chapter 5 The Plan

 _One at a time, I documented my family, typed in: name, age and relationship on each and added them to the file. While I was doing this the new patrol to watch the neighbor's backyard showed up and I sent them around to relieve Cal and Hal._

 _I was half way through Isabella's family when Julio, my brother, the_ _joda_ _walked in. "Heard you're fucking up not just your own but everyone's life again." He started in. (pain in the ass)_

"Language!" Mama warned him.

"This is the first time. There is no again." I told him.

"Oh, I'd say there are lots of agains. Like when you were eight and we went to the beach and you wandered off and instead of being able to play we spent all afternoon looking for you." He said, his five-foot ten-inch frame looking up at me insolently.

"It was twenty minutes."

"and when we went out to Family Fun Land and you were supposed to be at the bumper cars but instead you were at the refreshment stand flirting with a girl." He continued.

"Dad knew where I was."

"or when we went bowling and you rolled your ball too soon and hit the machine and stopped it from working and it took thirty minutes for the manager to get it working again and we didn't get to finish the game."

I stopped arguing and just stood there giving him my blank face.

"Or when you had all these "friends" coming over but they were really gang bangers and they dug up mama's flowers. Or when you stole that car and went to Juvie but your "friends" kept coming over so when you got out, you had to go live in Miami. I'd say there are a lot of agains, 'cause I just got started." He crossed his arms over his green embroidered polo shirt, with jeans and dusty tan work boots. His brown eyes looked challenging at me from beneath brown short cropped hair, slightly mussed from the hard hat he put on and took off all day.

I walked out of the room and went and got Isabella's little girl Shylia. I was just going to keep taking pictures and doing my job and ignoring that _culo_ was even here. I finished up the picture taking with Parker and finally my phone rang with Skylar. I walked into the living room and stood gazing unseeing at the couch. _(ass)_

"Tell me you have something awesome."

"I have something awesome. Well I have a few more options than I had before."

"There is a ten-day Alaskan cruise that leaves this Sunday I can squeeze you on, and I looked around up there and there is a complex of trailers that you can rent that would hold everyone. It's still cold and snowy right now but it's supposed to be beautiful.

Second, I found an eight-story resort south of Galveston, Texas that is two-thirds renovated. The lobby and first five floors are done. You could rent it and have the whole thing to yourselves. It has a pool and it is blocks from the beach. You would have to deal with a daily construction crew but could lock the whole complex down for the night. They don't currently have a working kitchen staff but that is something that could be obtained if you rent it for more than a week. They have golf, tennis, basketball and an extensive gym and workout area. Moody Gardens and an Aquarium is also nearby.

Third, I have a semi-private Island off the coast of Florida. It is actually owned by Blue Island cruise lines and the only way to get there is to take one of their cruises. But once on the Island they have twenty-four one and two-bedroom cabana's and you can rent them all. With it comes a staff that cleans daily and cooks three meals a day and has an activities coordinator to manage the troops. You can stay on the island as long as you want but because that cruise ship goes into the Bahamas before it comes back you would need passports. I know you can make them so it shouldn't be a problem. If you stay more than five days you miss the ship sailing back and have to fly back, but their runway is too small for the Concorde. You would have to rent several prop planes to shuttle everybody back. They have a lot of great activities. Snorkeling, paddle boards, surfing, wind surfing, water skiing, boating, shark fishing and of course just the beach. Personally, I think this is your best option, safe secure, and you can stay the whole time no jumping around."

"Thank you, Skylar you are beautiful and a miracle worker as usual. Send me all the details by email. Good bye."

I walked into the busy kitchen a few minutes later, to find mama, Abuela Rosa, Leyla, Isabella, Angelia and Julio.

"I have travel plans to discuss when everyone is ready. Does anyone know where Oshanna and Papa are? I would like everyone to be included in this."

"Carlos, I was just finishing up lunch for everyone. What can I fix for your men?"

"Mama, my men will get their own lunches once they go off shift."

"Nonsense, I have all this food. I can make them sandwiches or I have half a Pot Roast from last night with potatoes and carrots. I need someone to eat all this food or it will just go to waste."

"Ok mama, how about we take our lunches into the dining room and discuss travel plans. When we are all done. I will send my men in here a few at a time and you can feed them till the fridge is as barren as a desert."

"Of course, Carlos. Let me get everyone together."

"Thank you, mama."

I walked into the formal dining room and looked at the uniquely carved eight-person oak table that was rounded at both ends and covered with a white lace table cloth. I glanced at the matching china cabinet with all our holiday and silver serving dishes stylishly displayed behind glass doors. I stood at the end of the table opposite the chair my father always sat in and waited for everyone to assemble. I took a plate from the stack Abuela Rosa carried in and a sandwich from the platter mama had put on the table. Abuela Rosa came back with a stack of bowls and spoons. Mama brought a plate of cut up vegetables and one of sliced apples and grapes. Everyone started taking plates and filling them with food. Some carried their bowls into the kitchen to get some chicken soup from off the stove.

Slowly everyone settled down and took chairs, my mama, Isabella and Leyla to my right, Oshanna, Angelia and Julio on my left, papa carried a chair in from the kitchen table and sat it between him and my mama for Grandma Rosa and then sat at the head. Once everyone was seated I began. "Thank you everyone for being patient with this process. It takes time to find options for such a large number of people."

"There is only like fourteen people in the family. It shouldn't be that hard." Angelia said sarcastically.

I gave her a pointed blank stare. "There are possibly twenty-seven people in the family going. With the protection detail that will be traveling with us it will be more like forty-seven people, and we aren't traveling normally we are booking as one large group that needs to be isolated, so we can't just go anywhere." I told her. "To start I have reserved a private jet for us to travel on that can hold everybody."

"A private jet?" Isabella asked.

"I've always wanted to go on a private jet. They are for rich people. Mrs. Drismall always takes a private jet when they go to the fashion shows in Mulan." Oshanna said.

"We wouldn't have to have the kids sit with us if there are plenty of seats. We can let them sit anywhere." Angelia said to mama.

"Yes, it's the best way to travel with such a large group when protection is important. It keeps everyone safe because we know everyone on board, and everyone can move about the airplane freely. It saves us from the masses at the airport that could hide a bad guy trying to get someone and from the security lines at the airport. We will have two bathrooms and two stewardesses. This particular jet is very special. It has one hundred first class seats so there is plenty of room and no one has to fight over who gets the good seats. Plus, it goes supersonic, twice the speed of a regular airliner so we can be to California in three hours instead of six." I explained.

"It's good that it is fast. That way you can get there before the bad guys can figure out where you are going." Julio joked.

"It's good that it is fast, that way the kids aren't cooped up on an airplane forever." Angelia stated.

"So, we're going to California?" Oshanna asked.

"We have options. I told you I would give you options. Our best option is a private island off the Florida coast. We would take a cruise ship for a day to the island. Once there we would depart and move into these little one and two-bedroom cabanas. They are very cute. There is a lot to do on the island. Paddle boarding, snorkeling, shark fishing, surfing, sail boarding, boating, water skiing, and everything you can do on a beach. It is totally private you can only get there by ship or air and we will be the only ones staying on it so except for days when a boat is in port we have the run of the island. The best part is that we can stay as long as we want.

"I like snorkeling, but what are we going to do the rest of the time? Does it have internet? You know I have to be online and have contact with the office." Oshanna said.

"Becky is going to have assignments that she has to do online as well. I know her teachers, whenever she misses school she has makeup work to do." Leyla said.

"What about TV and movies? Shanna and Ricky like to watch their shows every morning and a movie in the afternoon is the only way Ricky will lay down for his nap." Angelia said.

"I will have to check out the options for on-line time. I will make sure we have what we need for the kids to do their school work. Oshanna you are off-line. Your life is in danger, you are running for your protection. The fashion industry will have to survive two weeks without you." I told her and she pouted.

"The two down sides are that the island is too small for the jet. We will have to take multiple small planes back to Miami. Everyone will need a passport to get back. Half of you don't have passports, but I can rectify that. We can make passports and other ID's at RangeMan." I explained.

"If you can make passports, why aren't we going international." Oshanna asked.

"These are good passports made with authentic passport jackets. You can't tell the difference. If you just go through normally, you won't have any problems. It will show up in the system as a legal passport. But if they specifically call to verify the passport it will come back as fake." I told her.

"What are the other options?" Asked Leyla.

"If you don't mind. Let me get out all the options without interruption and then you can discuss all the possibilities. Option two is a resort south of Galveston, Texas. It is half renovated, so we would have the first five floors to ourselves. There is a beach close by. There is a golf course, pool, tennis court, basketball and a large gym area. The nice part is we would have the run of the place and we can stay as long as is needed. This is your reminder, we are trying to go somewhere safe enough you don't have to be locked up in a safe house or hotel room."

Option three is a twelve-room cabin in Colorado. It is remote, safe and there is everything you can do outdoors. Hiking, fishing, biking, kayaking, campfires, smores, star watching. We can also go do some other activities that are in the area like white-water rafting, horse-back riding, four wheeling and everything you can do in the mountains.

Option four is not private or remote. It is a dude ranch in Wyoming. Everyday there are horseback rides and you get to help the ranch hands with the animals. I'm sure they have a lot of other activities. This is my least favorite choice because it's not private. There will be other guests staying there and we can't lock the place down.

"All the next options are split times. Where we can only be one place for a week and then go to another place for a week.

"Option five: Alaska. There is a compound there that is private, but they are little better than small trailers. We can stay there till next Monday and then take a ten-day Alaskan Cruise.

"Option six: California. There are three beach houses that we can rent. Everyone would share the house with some of my men so we would be spread out among the three houses. We can stay there for a week and then we can take a seven-day cruise up the California coast."

"Option seven: Hawaii, there is a Wedding compound on the beach that has eighteen rooms. We can stay there for a week and then take a seven-day Hawaiian cruise. With the California and Hawaii options there are going to be one or two nights where we will be in regular hotel rooms. Security will be tight. You will have report times. Times when you have to come back and report in for the night, so if we're not on lock down and you can leave with a guard, you will have to be back at a specific time, there is no going out all night partying, Oshanna." I stared at her intently. "Thoughts? Everyone."

"Well, we have already been to California. So, I would rather go to Hawaii. Florida sounds too rustic. Like one step up from camping." Angelia said.

"Florida sounds nice, gets the kids outside and active. I'm just worried about the passport thing. We don't have ours. And I have talked to Richard, where ever we go he wants to come." Leyla added.

"I think Florida sounds nice too. Personally, I like the idea of not having to pack and unpack and carry everyone's bags from place to place." Isabella said.

"Mama do you have your laptop? I can show you girls pictures so you get a better idea of what to expect on the Island. One more thing about the Island we will have our own cook staff that will cook three meals a day. A cleaning person that, if you want, will come in every day and clean your cabana, but the best part for the kids is that there is an activities coordinator, whose sole job is to make sure the kids have things to do and are entertained." Mama got up at my request and returned a few moments later with her laptop.

While the family talked, my mama booted it up and logged in. I stood watching the little mouse spin round and round hoping I could convince everyone that Florida would be the right choice. I pulled up my email, opened the link to the cruise line website and searched around to find the itinerary for our ship and the link for the island.

I pulled it up and even I was impressed with the little cabins made of logs with blue roofs. I spun it around and put it between Isabella and Leyla so they could read it together, Angelia, not to be left out stood reading over their shoulders.

"Hey, I can't see it from over there, pass it over to me." Oshanna said.

"It's not fair to keep us out of the loop just because we are the youngest." Julio said. While he is the youngest boy, both Isabella and Oshanna are younger than him. Still he plays it up to the hilt. My dad left the room and came back with his laptop and logged it in for me.

"Julio, you get no say whatsoever. You are not going. You are staying here and running the company while dad is gone."

"What do you mean I'm not coming. It's a family vacation, of course I am coming."

"This is not a family vacation. This is a trip to hide all the women somewhere safe. Any fun that is had along the way is incidental." I told him while I brought up the island's information for Oshanna and placed the laptop in front of her.

"Yeah but you're going to be having all the fun without me. I'm a member of this family too. I get a say in what goes on," He pounded on the table with his fist. "and I say I'm coming!"

"and I say you're not getting on that airplane. If you want to take your own private flight down to Florida, and happen to get a room on the same cruise, and happen to rent your own cabin on the island I can't stop you but that's the only way you are going to come." My hands were clinched at my sides wishing I could just beat the crap out of him.

"Mama this is our first family vacation since we were kids. There are a hundred seats on the plane, it won't cost a single extra penny for me to come. Tell Carlos, I can come, that I shouldn't be left out of such an important trip." He held his hands out to mama, a pleading look in his eyes, which I knew meant that once again he was going to get his way.

He has been getting his way since he was born. He was supposed to be the last child for my parents and they doted on him until Isabella came along. But he was still the youngest boy, so it was always Carlos, give him the truck, Carlos, let him play with the blocks, Carlos, let him watch his movie. I have always had to give in to this little punk while he skates through life doing half the work of anyone else and getting rewarded for it.

"Julio, if you come who is going to stay here and run the company for Papa?" I tried again.

"David can do it. He's assistant manager anyway, there's nothing he can't do." He simply explained it away.

"Carlos, your brother is right. There are plenty of seats on the plane, this is our first family vacation with all our kids and grandkids. It wouldn't feel right if he didn't come along." Mama told me. Julio gloated as he gave me his big shit eating grin, knowing that once again mama's boy got his way.

"Fine but you have to agree to all the same rules as everyone else. You have to listen to my men and do what they say and the safety of mama and your sisters comes before any fun for you. You have to agree to do what I tell you to and abide by any restrictions being placed on everyone. Like a curfew or lockdown."

"Bro, why are you sweating it so. We are just going to have some fun, no big deal."

"Papa would you show Julio the video and explain to him that this is a big deal. So he understands, that while we are trying to have some fun, the safety of everyone here is the primary concern."

"Julio," Papa said and waved his hand towards the living room. I knew he would never listen to me and mama would just let him off the hook, but papa will have a real discussion with him and if anyone can get anything through that thick skull, papa can.

"Mama, you haven't said anything about where you want to go." I said.

"Carlos, I just want to be safe. I want to know my kids are all safe." She patted my hand. "I would be happy going anywhere with my family. As long as we are safe and together that's all that matters to me."

"Do you have websites for the other locations?" Angelia asked.

"Sure, which ones are you interested in?"

"California a little. I mean we had fun when we went there before. But I am most interested in Hawaii." Angelia explained.

"When someone gets done with a computer I will pull it up for you."

"I'm done. I want to see California and Hawaii too." Oshanna said passing the laptop back to me. In separate screens, I pulled up the link to the California houses and the Hawaii resort and passed it back to her. Angelia came and sat down next to her.

" _Tenemos varias opciones: una isla frente a la costa de Florida, un complejo en Texas, una cabaña en Colorado, un rancho de caballos en Wyoming, tres casas de playa en California, un crucero en Alaska, un complejo de playa en Hawai. Abuela Rosa, ¿a dónde quieres ir?_ _" (We have several choices: An island off the Florida coast, a resort in Texas, a cabin in Colorado, a horse ranch in Wyoming, three beach houses in California, a cruise in Alaska, a beach compound in Hawaii. Abuela Rosa, where do you want to go?)_

" _No soy uno para viajar, pero me alegro de tener unas vacaciones con la familia, así que lo que decidan es bueno conmigo._ _" (I am not one for traveling, but I am glad to come have a vacation with the whole family so whatever they decide is good with me.)_

"The houses in Long Beach look like mini mansions, and the beaches look so white. It's only about an hour outside of Los Angeles." Oshanna said.

"Don't get your hopes up for Los Angeles. I'm not bringing enough men to have trips into town." I said as I started eating my turkey sandwich.

"Look at all this stuff for kids. Museums galore. Theme parks." Angelia said. "I've never been to Los Angeles. We went to San Diego when we went last time."

"Theme parks are out of the question. They are a logistical nightmare for security reasons." I told her as I chewed.

"They can't be that bad. Everyone that enters the park is screened. You know they can't bring any weapons in." Angelia insisted.

"Trust me there are hundreds of ways to get a weapon past those screenings. It's not that hard to do." I countered.

"Well what is there to do then?" Angela asked defeated.

"The beach is there every day." I explained.

"Well that's no fun." She huffed.

"It's better than being locked in a house you can't leave for two weeks." I said defensively.

"So, you're saying we will be an hour outside of Los Angeles and we can't even see the sights?" Oshanna demanded.

"I'm sure we can find some compromise. Going in an SUV with your guards to see the sights would be allowed. Doing certain things like museums would probably be allowed. It depends on the threat level each day. I'm not promising anything, just saying I'll let you do as much as I can. Remember we are getting you out of town so you aren't a sitting duck locked in your house or a safe house here. Anything you get to do on top of that is a bonus." I told her.

"It's not really my first choice but I agree that Florida would probably be best." Angelia said resignedly.

"What do you think Layla and Isabella? You both have your kids to think of and I think having the run of an Island is the best choice for freedom and options given." I asked as I kept eating.

"I want to know what kind of indoor activities they have because the sun gets to be too much in the afternoons and the kids will have to come inside." Isabella said.

"Let me look and see what I can find." I told her. I sat my sandwich down, took my mother's computer back and started looking through the web site.

"I like Florida, there are a lot of activities my kids can do and I like them getting outside and doing stuff rather than being plugged in all day. I haven't said this but I would like to let Richard know what's going on." Leyla said.

"Sure, use your cell phone while you're here. They already know where you are it won't hurt anything." I said.

"Isabella, here under rainy day activities. The have an indoor game room, with a ping pong table, a covered sand pit, books, games, a large screen TV, DVD player, and a craft area. Plus, if you're worried about it bring whatever you would do at home. If you have hand held games, or favorite board games, books. I'm sure you're going to want to bring some of that stuff for the plane ride anyway. There is no limit to the luggage you can bring and there is no weight limit for your bags." I told her as I handed the computer back and picked up my sandwich again.

"Will there be internet on the island? See each of the kids has their own laptop or tablet that they play games on and watch movies." Isabella said.

"I don't know if they have Wi-Fi on the Island and I don't know if it is safe for you to use without it being traced back. Let me make some phone calls. I'll let you know before tonight. On a side note can Diego join us? We would love to have him. Make it a family vacation. Mama and Papa can watch the kids a little and you two can have some alone time. There are enough Cabanas that we can even put all three kids in their own one and you can have some privacy. The kid offer goes for Leyla's kids too. They can have their own one or there are some larger two-bedroom ones that we could put all the older kids in together. Think about it." I said and finished off the sandwich in two bites.

I pulled out my phone, "Skylar beautiful! The group is leaning toward Florida but we have two main questions are their TV's and DVD players in the cabanas and is there Wi-Fi anywhere on the Island."

"You are going to a beautiful tropical Island and you want to stay indoors and watch TV?"

"Not me, but some of my sister's kids are young and a lot fairer skinned than me. They can only take so much sun time each day, especially if we are going to be there for two weeks. The school aged kids have homework they have to do each day that is online and has to be turned in. So, we need some kind of internet."

"I'll call you right back." She told me.

"One more thing, this will change the numbers a little, but add my brother to the group going. No protection, he has not been threatened but it seems I have to let him come." I said resignedly.

"You sound thrilled about it."

"Truthfully, he always causes problems, but everyone is excited about this family vacation and thinks he shouldn't be left out."

"So, is he paying his own way."

"Yeah nope, that's the greatest part I get to pay for him to come be a pain in my ass."

"Come on he can't be that bad."

"Actually, he is worse. He is a lazy mooch, who always breaks the rules and won't listen to anyone but my father. I know I will regret him coming but my family won't let me leave him behind."

"Maybe this will be a good bonding experience for you. Get back in touch with your family."

"It's going to be something." I said. Skylar was one of the few people in the world who understood the disconnect I felt with my family, as she was separated from hers as well.

"I've already emailed the cruise line specialist who handles the island reservations. I'll let you know as soon as I have a response." And she disconnected. I dialed the office.

"Bones, I have a couple of questions for you. Can we get hold of a Wi-Fi broadcasting unit that can broadcast a wide distance like a ship or a remote island and be encoded so no one can trace where the signal is originating?"

"I haven't heard of such a thing but let me get Hector he is more into wiring Wi-Fi and electronics. If they make it he has heard about it." I waited while he got Hector on the line.

"Sí, jefe hacen una cosa así. Funciona con torres de telefonía celular. En realidad, es dos partes. La primera parte toma una señal del teléfono celular de la torre de la célula y la canaliza a la segunda parte que es como un ranurador y la transmite como señal de Wi-Fi a las computadoras. La segunda parte toma la señal de retorno que envía de nuevo a la primera parte que scranbles y transmite de nuevo a la torre de teléfono celular. Así que en cualquier lugar hay torres de telefonía celular hay Internet segura intratable _."_ Hector told me. _(Yes, boss they make such a thing. It works off of cell phone towers. It is actually two parts. The first part takes a cell phone signal from a cell tower and channels it to the second part that is like a router and broadcasts it as a Wi-Fi signal to the computers. The second part takes the returning signal sends it back to the first part that scrambles it and broadcasts it back to the cell phone tower. So anywhere there are cell phone towers there is safe untraceable internet.")_

"¿Puede eso trabajar en unión con nuestra emisora de telefonía celular? Yo estaba planeando tomar uno." I asked him _._ _(Can that work in junction with our cell phone broadcaster? I was planning on taking one.)_

"Sí y si usas uno de nuestros radiodifusores de teléfonos celulares la señal ya está codificada." He clarified. ( _Yes, and if you use one of our cell phone broadcasters the signal is already untraceable.)_

"Obtener uno hoy y configurarlo, quiero que funcione esta noche y que me muestres cómo usarlo." I told him _. (Get one today and set it up. I want it working tonight and for you to show me how to use it.)_

"Afirmativo, está hecho." _(Affirmative. It is done.)_

While I was on the phone there was a commotion at the front door. Lester had trooped in sporting a new 55-inch 4KHD SMART TV. Everyone was talking at once. Papa was upset, Julio was drooling. Angelia was saying it wasn't good enough. Mama was upset and Oshanna thought we should give it to her.

"Lester, take it outside and leave it on the porch. Bring the metal detector in and get it charging. Papa what is the problem with the TV?"

"It's way too much, too big and too expensive for the kid's room. They are too young still touching the screen with sticky hands. They could knock it over and in two seconds it would be destroyed."

"Got it. Mama, what's wrong with the TV?"

" _Me'jo_ it is way too big. We don't have that big picture window so they kids can't see outside. They need a small TV so the sunlight can still come in the room and they can see what is going on in the world."

"Got it. Angelia, what's wrong with the TV?"

"Well, I can see mama's point. We have an 80 inch so I thought this one was too small. But for the kid's room she might be right it may be too big."

"Listen up. Papa, I owe you a TV. There is no debate there. I agree it is big for the children's room and it has options on it you may not want children to have. It is a SMART TV with internet programed into it. Maybe we should put the big new TV in the adult living room and move that smaller, older TV to the family room. Would that work better for you?"

He nodded to me.

"Mama would that be OK?"

"Si, that would work out better." Mama said.

"Excellent. Lester," I called out waiting for him to stick his head in through the door. "We worked it out. It is too big for the children's room, so you can set it up in the living room and move the living room TV to the family room." I turned back around. "Now that is settled can I have everyone back in the dining room?" I asked.

I stood at the head of the table waiting. "I want to make sure everyone is on board with the decision being made. Over all the island in Florida has been the pick for our trip. It is the safest and easiest to guard. It will allow everyone a lot more freedom and there is plenty of space. If everyone agrees I will book it." I looked around the room. No one nodded yes or no to the suggestion.

"Ok let's go around the table. Papa do you have a preference where we go?"

"No, I just want to enjoy being all together and being safe."

"Mama said the same thing. _Abuela Rosa,_ _¿a donde quieres ir?_ _"_ ( _Grandma Rosa, where do you want to go?)_

" _Iré a donde sea mejor para la familia._ _"_ _(I will go where ever is best for the family.)_

"Leyla your choice?"

"Florida."

"Angelia?"

"Well California or Hawaii are my preferred choices, but I can see the advantages of the island."

"Isabella?"

"The island sounds like it would be best for the kids, and safest for us."

"Oshanna?"

"I'm with Angelia I would rather go to California or Hawaii."

"Ok, by general consent Florida is the choice. I will start making the arrangements. Let me tell you all some basics-"

"Hey you didn't ask me where I wanted to go." Julio said.

"You are not even supposed to be coming. This trip is not for you. You will go with the group where ever they decide."

"That's not fair!" He pointed to me. "I'm a member of this family and I deserve to have a say."

Not wanting to fight with him I gave him my blank face stare. "Where do you want to go?"

"California. The babes there are the best. There aren't going to be any bars or babes on the island."

I completely ignored what he had said and continued my briefing for the family. "The rules start now: As I said before, when you leave here today you will leave with a two-man protective detail. You will leave your vehicles here and they will drive you everywhere you need to go-"

"Hey I said California, that makes the vote three to two so we win." Julio insisted.

To be continued…

A/N Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for all the reviews. They are all greatly appreciated and have spurred me on. I have Chapter 6 almost ready. If I can get 25 reviews from this chapter I will post it on Saturday instead of waiting till Monday.

Huge Thank you to my AWESOME Beta Sassysaint. If you haven't read her stories yet they are some of my favorites!

Isn't Julio a big pain in the ass? He takes annoying little brother to a whole new level. If you had to choose where would you pick to go? How are you liking the story so far? Please read and review.

The Manoso Family

Mother's Mother – Abuela Rosa Escalante, Father's Mother – Abuela Sanja Manoso

Mother – Maria Manoso Father – Javier Manoso

Siblings and families in age order

Leyla (35) & Richard Gonzales – Rebecca (Becky) 12, Margaret (Maggie) 10, Richard (Ricky) 7, Michael (Mikie) 5

Angelia (34) & Jordan White – Shanna 5, Kendrick (Ricky) 3

Ricardo Carlos Manoso (32) – Ranger

Julio Manoso (30) Ex-wife Allysa – Jacob 2

Isabella (27) & Diego Diaz – Chris 8, Shylia 6, Parker 3

Oshanna Manoso (22)

Rachel & Ron Martine – Julie 12, Fredrico (Freddie) 9, Cassandra (Cassie)6


	6. Chapter 6 Getting the Family Settled

Chapter 6 Getting the Family Settled

A/N OMG So sorry, Here is the correct chapter! Thank you everyone who reviewed to let me know.

 _Not wanting to fight with him I gave him my blank face stare. "Where do you want to go?"_

" _California. The babes there are the best. There aren't going to be any bars or babes on the island."_

 _I completely ignored what he had said and continued my briefing for the family. "Now start the rules: As I said before, when you leave here today you will leave with a two-man protective detail. You will leave your vehicles here and they will drive you everywhere you need to go-"_

" _Hey I said California, that makes the vote three to two so we win." Julio insisted._

I ignored him and continued. "They will protect you everywhere you go. Do what they tell you to do. They are going to let you go about your business until they see a problem so if they are telling you to do something you need to do it, no questions asked. We leave tomorrow at noon. I want everyone here at ten tomorrow morning so we have time to go through everything we need to go through before we can leave.

"Carlos, California wins. You can pretend you can't hear me but everyone at the table can. I want to go to California." Julio demanded.

I looked at him blank face. "You are not counting my vote, or Abuela Rosa, or mama's and papa's. Six against three, we go to Florida. Discussion closed." Then I continued.

"All spouses are invited to come. If they want to come I need you to let me know as soon as you know and I need you to send me a picture that could be a driver's license picture. Medium head shot against a white wall. Take a couple if you are not sure and send them to me by tonight. Does anyone know for sure, besides Leyla if their spouse is coming or not?"

"Jordan's not coming. He can't get away for such a long period of time on such short notice." Angelia said.

"That's too bad. We could always use a doctor along. Let him know we will miss him but we understand." I told her. "Anyone else?"

"Well, like I said Richard wants to come. Vacation time at his job has to be prescheduled and approved. If he takes this time off he won't get paid. So, we are trying to see if we can make it work." Leyla explained.

"Talk to me privately. We can make it work. I would love to have him along. Isabella?"

"I think Diego will come. He isn't sure about this whole thing. He doesn't understand why I'm in danger so he kinda thinks this is all a game."

"Have him call me and I will put him on the list. I want as many spouses coming as possible. There is safety in numbers and everyone will have a better time if you aren't worrying about the spouse back home that you can't contact. I am going to be very specific. Once we leave there is no contact with anyone left behind. That includes work, husbands, boyfriends, girlfriends, yoga class and play groups. You are _incommunicado_. If there is an emergency, exceptions will be made, but there is no calling home to say goodnight and blow a kiss. You are off the grid having no communication with anyone but those in the group until we get back." _(not able to communicate)_

"There are exceptions. Papa runs his own company. Papa, I have an untraceable satellite phone for you to use, it is only for Papa to use, do not ask him to use it. If you need to make a call I have my own satellite phone, you can ask me, but it needs to be urgent, and dire. We aren't just calling people to tell them we are still alive. Trust me the minute you are no longer alive RangeMan will notify people for you so if they haven't heard anything then they need to assume everything is going well. I am working on having our own private cell network, and internet where ever we go. Unless I call and tell you otherwise you can bring your electronics: laptops and tablets.

"I will issue you a new cellphone to use for this trip and it is only to be used to contact people on this trip. You will be assigned a specific RangeMan employee for the trip. They will be guarding you every day and go everywhere you go all day. On the Island, it may be a little more relaxed but they are your shadow. They are not there to watch the kids or hold your bag. They are there to watch everything going on around you and make sure you are safe. If you go to the bathroom, they will be waiting outside the door. They will greet you in the morning and tuck you in at night.

"Their job is your life and your safety, and they will take a bullet for you if needed so please listen to them and do anything they ask you to do without arguing. That said, they ARE assigned to handle your luggage. So, stack it by the door and they will load it. They will get it on the plane. Let them know which ones are your carry-on's, so they will be loaded inside the jet.

"Luggage is different from airline requirements because we are taking a private jet there is no limit on how many suitcases you can bring or what you can pack in them. You can bring your whole 16 oz bottle of shampoo, lotion or a whole tube of toothpaste. Just realize in case of emergency you may be forced to get on a regular airline and all of that stuff would have to go in your checked luggage, and overweight or extra bags will cost you. Don't worry about it too much because I will cover those costs, just be aware of it. Bring cash only, because you can NOT use any debit or credit cards you may have. I will cover all of your expenses as soon as you leave this house until you and your families are safely returned. Any emergency or need will be covered by me.

"Angelia, I'm going to directly state it. The dog can't come, not on the airplane, not in the hotel, not on the cruise ship, not on the island. Either leave him with your husband or find a neighbor or friend to dog sit."

"Fine," she said huffily. I knew she would try to sneak him on board, because she takes him everywhere. I need to make sure to tell her men that the dog is not to come.

"I am going to ask Rachel and family to join us. If nothing else I will get Julie to join us, because she was specifically named. I am also asking Stephanie to join us on this trip. Please be nice to her. Don't scare her away and don't ask her about the bruises on her face. You have all seen the video. That is not something she needs to have repeatedly brought up.

"The men you get today will be with you till midnight. A new crew will come on then and stay with you till you are assigned your permanent protection detail. The next security group will get here about 14:00, you can leave with them any time after that." Oshanna raised her hand. "That's two o'clock." I explained and her hand went back down.

"Make no mistake about this trip the main goal is to keep you sane while keeping everyone safe. I realize it is my past that has put you all at risk and that's why I am sparing no expense. I have worked hard to give you choices and allow this to be a vacation rather than just trying to lock you up in a safe house. Hopefully this will keep your minds off the situation and allow myself and my men to do their jobs. Does anyone have any more questions?"

"What about me?" Julio asked.

"Be here at 10:00 am tomorrow, bags packed. Passport in hand."

"Anyone else?" I asked looking around the room at everyone. Then I continued. "Final notes: Make sure your bosses understand you are off line and are unable to contact them until this is over, which is expected to be two weeks. Let them know if anything happens to you, they will be contacted, but until they hear from you no news is good news. Cancel any doctor or other appointments. Let your friends and Facebook buddies know you are off-line, or out of town where there is no cell phone or internet service. DO NOT TELL ANYONE WHERE WE ARE GOING! Tell them it is a private family vacation and your parents are deciding where you are going. Don't even tell them little things like "it's some place tropical", or "they said to pack a bathing suit." You are dropping off the face of the planet and no one is to have any clue where you are going. Tell them you will be in touch when you get back.

"Normally with security jobs like this, the clients, that's you, have no idea where we are going until we get there. If we are getting on a commercial flight they find out when we get to the gate. Our location is top secret. We are going to extreme measures to make sure no one knows where we are going and we don't leave any digital trail they can follow. So, consider yourselves lucky that you know in advance and can pack accordingly. Papa, will you call your mother and explain this threat and invite her to come on this trip with us? I have men outside her house right now but I will feel better if everybody comes. Mama will you explain all this to Abuela Rosa?" They both nodded to me.

"Now let me call my personal travel assistant and we will get this ball rolling. Then Leyla and Isabella, I will talk to each of you." I stepped out into the backyard full of playing children and dialed Skylar.

"They changed their mind and you're calling for more options." She said in loo of hello.

"No Florida is fine. Book the jet to leave at noon tomorrow, from Newark. Book the cruise line, nine suites or the biggest rooms they have for the family. One small room in the bowels of the boat for my brother. We will sort out who gets what when we board. Book for twenty of my men, fourteen day-shift, six night-shift. Book a hotel for tomorrow night south of Miami in Homestead. Book all the cabanas for two weeks with an option to extend. We want the full kitchen crew and staff. We need a list of every passenger and employee on the cruise ship. We need pictures and detailed résumés on every employee on that Island. Have them all faxed to Tank. One husband is not coming so it will keep our total at 47. Do you need anything else from me?"

"Nope, got it boss. I will call or text you when I hear back about the TV's and internet."

"Thanks so much sweetheart. Good bye." I told her and called Rachel.

"Rachel, how is your day going?"

"Scary, we are all just sitting here at home scared out of our minds. Ron even came home at lunch time and stayed."

"I have a plan that will make things easier if you can put me on speaker phone so I can talk to both of you together. It is safer, with every female in my family being targeted, to get everyone out of town. I am packing my family up to go on an impromptu vacation and I want your family to come along. It will be easier to protect everyone together and getting away will be less stressful on everyone. I am already making reservations like you are coming but you have a few hours to decide. Ron, I would really like you to come too. Explain to your job that you are having a family emergency that is taking you out of town for two weeks and I will cover all of your expenses while you are gone so it won't cost you anything. Even if you and Rachel can't come I want Julie to come for her own safety. So, think about it and let me know as soon as you decide. If you have any questions please call or text me."

"I think we will come." Rachel said with a shaky voice. "It will be less frightening to be with the rest of your family and getting away won't make us feel like the sitting ducks we are right now."

"I agree that is why I am taking everyone away. Discuss it and let me know as soon as you decide."

I told Lester and Woody to go to the kitchen to eat once the TV's were set up then go back out on patrol. I went out to Hal and Cal and sent them in to get lunch from my mother, with the understanding that once they ate they were to rotate and cover everyone while they took turns eating.

I went to the Cayenne and got a RangeMan checkbook and wrote out some checks for my sisters. I went to hunt down my sisters, I found Leyla and Isabella in the kitchen with my mama and I asked each of them to step back into the dining room. "Listen I know this whole thing is sudden. You're both unexpectedly losing money from being out of work and if your husbands come you will be losing more. Here is money to put into your accounts to make sure all your bills are covered."

I handed each of them a check and turned to go find Oshanna. Leyla reached out and grabbed my arm. "Wait a minute Carlos, you can't just walk in and give me this and walk back out. This is too much money I can't accept it." Leyla said.

"Look it is my fault that this is happening and this is nothing. Just another way for me to say I'm taking responsibility for all of this and making sure you have enough money to pay all your bills while you are gone." I told her.

"But nine thousand, nine hundred, ninety-five dollars? Couldn't spell ten thousand?" Isabella teased.

"The minute I hand you ten thousand dollars, you have to fill out special forms for the Federal government and the money is tracked and held for two weeks. This way you can cash that check if you need to and deposit the cash without a problem. Just make sure the money is in your accounts before we leave. It will give me a measure of peace to know that everyone's bills are covered while we are gone. Just don't tell anyone else how much you got because Angelia and Oshanna are not getting as much."

"Angelia is not losing any money. Why are you giving her a check?" Leyla demanded.

"I'm being fair to everyone. I can't hand everyone else thousands of dollars and leave her out." I'd never hear the end of it. "It's still a small way for me to make amends to each of you for what is happening." I walked out then and found Angelia, Oshanna and Julio in the living room watching Lester and Woody program the new TV.

"Oshanna, you are out of work for the next two weeks and I want to make sure all of your bills are covered, so here is a check. Please deposit it before we leave tomorrow, so the funds are there when you need them." I handed her a check and Angelia leaned over her shoulder to look at it.

"Angelia, I know you aren't working right now, but there is a lot of stress involved in this situation and this is to help alleviate some of that for you." I handed her a check.

"Three thousand dollars? You gave Oshanna five." Angelia questioned.

"Just trying to be fair to everyone." I told her. "Oshanna needs it to pay her bills for the money she is losing being out of work. You are not losing any money because you are not working right now but I couldn't leave you out and give you nothing. Just consider this as partial payment for your pain and suffering through all of this." I turned to my brother. "Julio, I need to take your picture in the kitchen."

"Hey bro, where is my check?" He said as he got up and looked over Oshanna's shoulder.

"You should just be thankful mama stepped in. If it was up to me you wouldn't be coming. I still think it is the wrong thing and you will make me regret it before we get back. Now stand against the wall." I told him and I snapped the photo.

"No bro, it's not like that. I understand why we are going now and I can help protect the women in our family. I can be a great asset."

"I have trained men protecting our women. I just need you to not cause problems and keep to all the rules that are laid down."

"Of course, you know me bro. Always the first one to help." He told me. Yeah, I know him. Always the first one to cause problems, break the rules and make a disturbance. My gut told me he was going to be a problem. I walked out the backdoor and called Ella again.

"Have you taken Stephanie her breakfast yet?" I asked as I watched the two three-year-old's, Parker and Ricky, fight over the same porch toy; a four wheel, sit down ride around red truck with big yellow handles over the cab like a bike and the back of the truck shaped into a seat.

"She never called me to bring breakfast up. She just got up and left about fifteen minutes ago."

"Ella, I need your honest opinion. I'm taking twenty men with me to protect the family on a remote island. I want my men to look professional but blend a little better with the environment. I was thinking black cargo shorts, black tank tops embroidered with RangeMan, and ankle high boots. Wearing their name badges on lanyards. Will that still be intimidating and professional enough?"

"If I embroider the shirts it will totally look professional. Your men always look intimidating, it's the serious and blank looks that they give. While I am at it you need a logo. Something to go with the name RangeMan to make it look more official."

When I didn't respond, she continued. "How many do you need and for whom?"

"Three to five shirts and shorts a piece. I don't know how many you can find and make. I will send you the list of potential men. But make up a few extra in different sizes just in case."

"I'm on it. When do you need them by?"

"We leave at 09:00 tomorrow morning. The men have to be packed by then."

Tank had sent me his list of six-night shift options. I added fourteen and I sent it back to him: Lester, Woody, Cal, Hal, Ram, Junior, Chet, Erik, Bobby, Marc, Eddie, Chester, Gino, Martin, Vince, Mario, Victor, Ramon, Zip, Zero and asked Tank if there was any problem with any of these men going.

He texted back that Martin and Victor were due for their physicals. I substituted Manuel and Ryan and texted the list to Ella.

I sent a private text to Lester. _This is half an order and half a personal request. I am putting together a protection detail to go out of town with my family. I would like to ask you to be the assigned detail for Oshanna. You know how she is and can talk her into cooperating. I am putting you down for this assignment unless you tell me otherwise._

I texted all of the men on the list: _Preparation required. You have been selected for a special protection detail to guard my family. It is expected to last two or more weeks in a tropical, beach location. To blend a little better and be more approachable for my family there will be some changes in the normal uniform. Embroidered black tank tops and cargo shorts with ankle high water-proof black boots will be permitted. Ella is working on the shirts and shorts. Ankle high, waterproof boots are optional but would look better with the shorts. Here are three stores that carry appropriate models or you can check with the local army supply store. Briefing tonight at 20:00. Packed and leaving tomorrow 09:00. Required equipment on full gun belt: stun gun, side arm, knife, extra clip and ammo, six-inch collapsible baton, binoculars, radio, flash light, handcuffs, extra clip for LSAT, ammo pouch for 100 LSAT bullets, rifle strap for LSAT. Bring RangeMan issued credit card, if you don't have one contact Bones immediately. This detail is optional, full protection pay included. If you do not wish to be selected for this detail please let me know so I can reassign positions._

I called Tank as I watched the older kids organize themselves in a game of tag, naming Maggie as 'it' to start and them all running as far away from her as the large backyard would allow hiding behind trees as they went.

"Yo" Tank answered.

"Tell me that Stephanie has a two-man team on her."

"Affirmative." Tank said.

"Who's with her?" I asked.

"Ryan and Raphael" Tank explained.

"Keep her actively monitored until we leave town." I disconnected and called Stephanie.

"Hello."

"Good morning Babe. How are you feeling today?"

"Foggy, angry, my whole face hurts, and I have a drug hang over."

"Do you need my men to get you the cure?"

"No, we're in the drive thru at McDonald's now. Explain to me why I can't go out alone and why I can't drive?" She questioned me.

"Babe, that was a close call last night and until the bad guys are taken off the street I need to make sure you are safe."

"Well it's difficult to stake out an FTA with Godzilla and mountain man with me. Neither of them can talk or blend."

"I'll tell them to be your backup and let you do the apprehensions. How many skips do you have open?"

"Three. Two are low bond but Emanuel Caudillink is going to buy me a new car." I could hear the smile in her voice.

"What is he wanted for?"

"Armed robbery, he held up a convenience store and then went one block down and bought some liquor, while the cops were taking the report from the convenience store clerk. The clerk saw him coming out of the liquor store and the cops gave chase. He resisted and boom high bond."

"He is probably armed and dangerous. Are you carrying your gun?"

"No" she practically whispered.

"Stun gun."

"Yes" She said definitively.

"Lead the assault on the door but let Ryan and Raphael subdue him. Then you can stun him and drag him out to the car. Babe, I have a favor to ask you."

"Sure, whatever it is."

"I want you to come away with me tomorrow. Can you get your skips all cleaned up today so that you're available?"

"If I can find them."

"Call Roger and have him run a search, see if he can't turn you up more leads."

"Where are we going?"

"It's a surprise, but I will come over tonight and help you pack. You can stay at Haywood again and we will leave tomorrow morning." I needed her to come out of town with us or I won't be able to sleep.

"Are you asking me to run away with you?"

"No, I am taking my whole family away. Everyone these guys have threatened including Julie and you."

"Well, you should know by now I'm not the kind of girl that runs away or hides. This is my life and I stand up to whatever threats come my way."

"Babe, you got kidnapped and hung off the side of a building last night. If these guys get ahold of you I won't get a second chance to save you. They will torture and kill you." I paused. "Please Stephanie, come away with me. Just for two weeks. Then I will make it safe for you again. I promise."

"Ok," she hesitated, "I'll come, but I'm not staying away indefinitely and I am not going to run every time you think I am in danger."

"Thank you. I'll pick you up when I am done with my family and we can get you packed."

"Ok, but Joe's getting out of the hospital today. I told him I would come over tonight."

"Cancel. Until these guys are caught, you are not going anywhere with him. He's already shown he can't keep you safe from these guys and Babe, I need you to be safe." I also need to keep you far away from him because you are going to be mine and I don't take to poaching. "Besides he could get hurt worse trying to protect you again. It's safer for you and him, if you stay away from him till these guys are caught." That's the best excuse yet. She will stay away from him and he can't tell her she is wrong to do it.

"I got it. I'll just have lunch with him at Pino's. No one will bother us there, not with all the cops and your two gigantic men following me around."

Good compromise. He can't get her naked in Pino's. "Ok Babe, but keep your eyes open and stay safe. I'm almost done with my family and then I will be back in town."

"How did they take it? You know the whole stalking going to kill you thing?"

"A little rough. It is new to them so they are all a little shell shocked. They were as against protection as you are but eventually they came around. I would like you to meet them all tomorrow." I would tell her about the plans tonight while I helped her pack. If I can just get her to my parent's house there would be no turning back for her.

"Meet your family?" She repeated.

"Yes, they have all heard about you. They are all in danger and they can use the advice from a pro like you."

"You think I am a pro?"

"I think you have more experience than anyone I know with getting stalked and kidnapped. You can be a calm voice of reason assuring them that my men can protect them and that it will all be Ok."

"I think I can do that." She assured me and I disconnected.

By 13:20 Chet and Hank had finished bagging and tagging everything they could find and sent the cops on their way with the evidence. Then I had them get the metal detector and comb through the yard again.

At 13:45 the new protection crew showed up. I lined everyone up outside and gave them their orders. "I know you have all done this before, but this is my family and I'm going to go through it all again. You're assigned to one of my sisters or my mother and grandmother. Two men teams. Once assigned and introduced stay outside until your target is ready to leave. They leave with you, in your SUV. NO ONE drives their own car no matter what. They will all have a lot of errands. We are leaving as a group tomorrow for at least two weeks and they have to get their families packed and ready.

"You are not to babysit or stay with the kids in the car while the target runs in. Everyone goes inside, or the target stays in the car with one man and the other man runs inside for her. Two-man teams at all times the client is moving. My mother and sisters are the primary targets. They get to deal with the kids and you get to protect them. Call me with any unsolvable problems. Expect Angelia and Oshanna to try to duck you, pitch a fit or continue to leave you with the kids. Because they are my family they are going to think you should go easy on them. Tell them the opposite is true. That you have to be harder with them and make sure they are safe or I take you to the mats and shoot you in a very personal place. No breaking the rules for them. Once they are home, they are home for the night. Call me with any exceptions. You will be relieved at O Zero Hundred. Let's go inside and meet my family."

I introduced the men to my family and sent them to posts outside. Then I radioed the first shift to meet me in the front yard. Once they were lined up I addressed them.

"Good work today men. You helped me save Stephanie and keep my family safe. Tomorrow we start the two-week protection detail. Santos you are going. Everyone else on the list can go if you want. I am only taking twenty willing volunteers' because this is my family and I only want men willing and wanting to help protect them. So, if you don't want to go, let me or Tank know.

"Now there are ten men from the Boston and Atlanta offices waiting at Newark. They are to report to Tank upon arrival. Some of you will share your rooms while they are here, Tank is making the assignments. If you come on the trip, men will be sharing your apartment while you are gone, be ready for it. Dismissed."

"Lester," I called him. "I have the gun in the back of the Cayenne, take it to Sybo for processing. Tell him I want a report when I get back."

I went and sat in my car, knowing I would just be continually harassed by my family if I went back into the house. I checked my texts, and then my emails and finally my phone messages. I'd had several calls from other offices dealing with RangeMan business three that I answered and two that I forwarded on to Tank.

Starting tomorrow I was going to be off-line so it was better people started routing their questions to the men next in line. I had one message from Connie stating that she had a new file for RangeMan and could I come pick it up. I delayed in forwarding that message on, I might need that excuse to stop by when Stephanie is there and if not, I can mention it to Tank in the morning.

I watched the light traffic on this residential street and the gardening techniques of their neighbor who had a few selectively placed bushes on either side of the front porch and next to the driveway but covered the rest of the front yard and patio with small and large planters that were overflowing with different colors of flowers and different kinds of green plants. Normally I would just leave, but I wanted to see the window get fixed and make sure my father was happy with the repair. I got his house shot up, the least I can do is repair it. I got lost in my thoughts.

This was going to be a difficult assignment, for my men, in that they will be standing around where there is no perceived threat, watching my family have fun. It is actually easier when you are in public because there are dangers to watch out for. Here they are likely to be hot and board standing out in the sun all day. So, I want volunteers' who know the situation and agree to the job. It is also going to be different because while I am running this op. I will be wearing shorts and spending time with my family having fun. Not a role most of my men have ever seen me in.

I would much rather stay here and hunt down the men that are threatening my family but I knew that wasn't an option. The only way to convince my family to do this was if I went along. The only way I can rest assured of Stephanie's safety is if I am the one guarding her.

I am relieved that the island was the main choice because it will be the easiest place to defend and the likelihood that anyone could find us there is so remote, it is practically impossible. Of course, I would still leave a false trail for anyone to follow. If they followed us to the airport and figured out what we are flying, it is a one of a kind jet and if they find it they will have a way to find us again. Its uniqueness is a dead giveaway to our location. I know Mukhtar told me two-weeks but it just seems too easy and if I don't eliminate the threat they can come after them once we get back or in a month or year. Sergio has waited this long he certainly can be patient enough to wait a little longer.

My phone rang. "Talk."

"Your phone manors only seem acceptable when you call me but I know I am the social exception to your rule." Skylar said.

"My most fabulous woman, I didn't check my read out before I answered. You know I promised your man to treat you like you are the most precious gift on earth and that you walk on water. Both are true so how could I be any other way with you. What wonderful things do you have for me?"

"I called to explain about the internet. First of all, there are TV's and DVD players in every cabana, and Direct TV satellite channels. But the only internet is in the dining room, or the game room. It is not all over the island or in the cabana's."

"I should have asked you to check on this before. Is there cell service on the island? Can you find out for me?"

"Actually, I already know. Yes, they have their own cell tower on the Island but it is only AT&T so if you have another carrier you will be roaming."

"Excellent, good to know."

"That is all the news I have for you today. The links to the hotel rooms for tomorrow and the cruise ship Friday are in your email. If you need anything else just give me a ring."

"Now, my miracle worker. I need a favor."

"Anything for you Ranger."

"File a flight plan that goes to Wyoming, and reserve 5 rooms on the dude ranch as a decoy. Do not tell the pilots where we are going, just that we need a full tank, boarding between eleven and twelve, to depart at twelve o'clock, and we need lunch and snacks for fifty."

"You got it. They are doing a final check on the jet today and it will fly over tonight from the hanger in France. They will have it fueled and ready to go first thing in the morning."

"Thank you Skylar, you are a treasure in all of this."

"Good luck with your family, Ranger. Have a safe trip."

"Good bye"

I texted my whole family that we would have internet on the island and that there are TV's and DVD players in the cabanas. Then I got back to my thoughts about Sergio.

I'm going to have to go after him and take him out. There is no other way with my family's lives at stake. But I'm going to get them past this immediate threat and then I will go alone. He will expect a team. They will be watching for a team. What I needed was to verify his location. Sergio has many compounds now and two families he divides his time between. My reverie was interrupted by the glass installers.

I met them two houses down and walked them to the window with the bullet holes. They said they had glass big enough to cover it. I had my men move vehicles so they could park in front of the house. I left them to measure it out and went inside to get my papa so he could supervise the installation. My papa was the one who knocked out the wall and installed the big eight by ten-foot window, years ago after he started his construction company. It was one of the first renovations he did on the house after adding a full bath downstairs.

After Isabella was born, we were already two to a bedroom and he did a huge addition, taking out the entire north wall and adding the now adult living room and dining room downstairs, then three more smaller bedrooms upstairs, so each kid would have one of their own. Three years after construction was complete Oshanna came along and threw off the entire plan. Six kids and only five bedrooms. Fortunately, they put Isabella and Oshanna together and let each of us older kids have a bedroom of our own. It was a glorious day when I got my own bedroom and jackass Julio was out of my hair and my stuff.

He was always messy, clothes on the floor, shoes, toys, books, schoolwork everywhere. Never able to find anything that he was looking for, he would tear the whole room apart while he looked. It was such a relief to have my own space that I could keep clean and orderly. Of course, now I wanted to share it with Stephanie, but I am not too worried; Ella will keep everything in line for me, and Steph will get better about her stuff being all over.

They were sealing in the new window and I saw my papa frowning. "Papa, what's wrong?"

"It's reflective. None of the other windows have reflective tinting."

"I hadn't realized it. I'm sure when they got the order from RangeMan they thought it was going to be like all the other windows in our building. "Let me talk to them."

I talked to them about getting non-reflective glass and they didn't do safety glass that was non-reflective in sheets this big. So, I asked them if they had more sheets with them and they said yes and I told them to replace all the front windows with the same kind of glass.

"Papa, I think the reflective glass is nice, it is more private because you can see out but no one can see in. To make your house match I have asked them to replace the two living room windows with the reflective safety glass. Then the front of your house will match and it will be safer. I'm sure you don't like it and are worried about the cost. Papa first, I make a lot of money so don't worry about the cost. Second, I give these guys a lot of business and they give me a good discount. Third and most important. The current crazies aren't the only ones that could come after the family. Having the front of your house bullet proof would give me peace of mind."

Papa humphed. He wouldn't argue with me about the safety glass and it did make the house look cool. It would keep the house cooler in the summer, and allow them to leave the curtains open more and keep people from seeing in. It would be safer for him and mom and all the family gatherings we have here. But he still wouldn't like it.

"Thanks papa for letting me do this. It means a lot to me."

Once the glass was replaced I went inside and said goodbye to mama, abuela and my sisters. Told them all I would see them tomorrow and left like my tail was on fire.

To be continued…

A/N Thank you! Thank you! Thank you all for your reviews! This was your bonus chapter. I hope you enjoyed it. I have one more week of daily updates then it is going to go to weekly updates.

Wow, it took a lot more chapters than expected to deal with his family. Hope you are still enjoying the story. The island retreat is based on a real Island owned by Carnival cruise lines, that used to be a one day stop for them on their Bahama cruises. It was beautiful and remote, we went snorkeling there, and the water was pristine but about ten years ago a hurricane washed over the island not doing a lot of damage but filling in sand around the Island so that it became too shallow for the ships to dock there anymore.

As always big THANK YOU to my beta Sassysaint who makes my story's more readable. You are AWESOME! THANK YOU!

This story is developing different than my original outline but I am willing to follow it where ever it leads. Do you want to come along for the ride? Let me know what you think. Please read and review.


	7. Chapter 7 I Love You for Real

Chapter 7 – I love you for real

 _Once the glass was replaced I went inside and said goodbye to mama and my sisters. Told them all I would see them tomorrow and left like my tail was on fire._

I was in my zone the whole way home barely noticing the heat of the blazing afternoon sun, the air in my car keeping me cool, the sky unmarred by any clouds and amplified by the smog that loomed over the highways. Upon arriving at Haywood, I went straight to the conference room to check up on the investigation. So far, they had found names for two of the men on the video. They still didn't know what names they were traveling under. I read the dossier of the men and it confirmed what I suspected. These were soldiers turned mercenary who did work for hire.

Jacque LeSerable was ex-French special forces, who did ten years of work for the French government when he was suddenly retired two years ago from a gunshot wound. Finley "Harry" Jamieson was Austrian, a demolitions expert for their army. Retired six years ago. I had never met either man before, but maybe if they were only in it for the money they could be bought. There were no leads on the hotel.

Hector had found pictures of a silver Ford Bronco coming out of my parent's neighborhood three minutes after the shooting and ran the plates. It was stolen two days ago, leading me to believe that the men hadn't been in the country very long and were just getting started. He searched around Fourth and Broadway through the traffic cameras there but didn't have eyes on the construction site. He did find a white Chevy truck coming up Broadway with a large ladder in the back. He was able to follow it for a few blocks but couldn't get clear pictures of the men inside, the plates came back that it was stolen yesterday. He told me he had the equipment I requested but was still setting it up and to give him two more hours. I told him I would come back after the 20:00 meeting.

Sybo was running all the different prints he got off the gun. They were all partial prints and he didn't have any matches yet. He could tell me the gun was last registered to Russian forces in Syria two years ago. I couldn't understand why they were being so careful with their prints on the ladder, bullets, and gun when they showed their faces on camera, breaking and entering, drugging people, hurting and killing that woman. They had to know the DVD would be turned over to the police.

Maybe the guys in the video are being used as fall guys for the men who are really running the show behind the scenes. I always thought Mukhtar was running the camera and that was why you didn't see him, but maybe there were other men there too. Men who are organizing this whole thing and are pulling the strings to get me to dance. I have a feeling that this is a Marionette puppet show.

Sergio has hired someone to pull these guys strings, they are doing what they are doing to pull my strings and see how I react, and the two-week deadline is just so I protect my women. Then I'll let my guard down and they take them and laugh at me while they are doing it. My gut was telling me I was close to the truth and whether the women liked it or not it was not going to be all over in two weeks unless all the threats were found and eliminated. This meant cutting off the head at the source. I could take out these two-bit hit men one after another but until Sergio was dealt with they would just keep coming.

I met up with Bones to see how the digital family album was coming.

"I have it all put together and cross referenced so you can pull each family up by the target's name and a diagram screen that shows the general relationship to you. What I am missing is pictures of all the husbands going. I need them for the family album and so I can make each their ID's. I need new headshots, in different outfits than the picture taken today, for everyone needing a passport." Bones explained.

I sighed internally, I needed to call everyone right now, this was too important to wait because Bones needed time to make the passports. I began the phone calls. First, I called my parents, explained to them the need for the head shot passport pictures with a different outfit and asked them to take them and text them to me with-in the hour.

I called Leyla, and explained that I needed an additional headshot for her and two pictures of Richard as soon as he got home. I called Isabella and she verified that Diego was going to go and I told her we needed for her to text headshots of him as soon as possible.

I called Rachel and Ron back. "Rachel, have you guys been able to discuss this plan and make a decision about going away with the family?"

"We have been debating it and we both think it is a good idea. We are just trying to get it Ok'd by his boss." Rachel explained.

"If his boss has any questions have him call me, I will explain the situation better. I want to let you know I understand you are losing money over this and I want to make sure all your bills are paid so I am going to send some money to your bank account. I am flying the whole family down to Miami tomorrow. I will have your protection detail pack you up and meet us for dinner. We are planning to stay around town overnight and then Friday, we are leaving for a private tropical island until it is safe for us to come home. Rachel, understand that I am going to make it safe for your family again." I promised her. "Now do you guys have passports?" I explained to her what was needed and disconnected.

Already my parents had texted me with their pictures and I forwarded them to Bones. I would have to wait till after 17:00 for my sisters to send pictures of their husbands.

I headed up to five to talk to Tank about personnel and logistics for the trip.

"Any problems with the personnel assigned to the case?" I asked him.

"I'm not sure you should take Santos. He might think he is part of the family and forget he is part of the protection detail."

"I'm taking him specifically for Oshanna. She is half in love with him, has had a crush on him for years and she will listen to him and won't be as likely to try to duck him. She will think they can go have fun together and he will make this as fun and friendly as possible while still keeping her safe. He is the best candidate to watch her. Anything else?"

"Everyone else is in line."

"Ok, just so you know I have Ella working on new uniforms for this job, embroidered tank tops and cargo shorts. The men have been approved to wear ankle boots. I want my family to feel as comfortable as possible around the men. With everyone in bathing suits the men would have been grossly overdressed." He just stared blank faced at me, but I can read Tank's blank faces and around the eyes this one was saying I had lost my mind.

"I want more armament than usual. The island is approximately ten square miles, two and a half wide and about four miles long. Any threat will have to come by sea or air. We need to be able to shoot further than a regular pistol. I was thinking the LSAT LMG's for the men to carry." (LSAT Light Machine Guns are a new prototype machine gun the Army is testing out.)

"You're going to have them wear shorts and carry a machine gun, because that will seem less threatening?" Now his eyes were laughing and his voice was touched with incredulous.

"It's a contradiction for sure but yes that is the plan. The machine guns should help my family feel safer because they know they are being carried to get any bad guys that approach the island. Plus, it will make up for the lack of a second ankle gun for the men. I understand that the full order has come in. Have they been tested?"

"No, they are still in the crates."

"Have Sybo pulled them out and test each one. I want to take all twenty-four plus five hundred rounds per man."

"Anything else?"

"I'm off to find Stephanie and talk her into coming." I gave him an almost smile.

"Good Luck." He said it but it sounded like he thought it was wishful thinking.

I went to my office on five and pulled up her trackers. She was at the police station. I knew that next she would be heading to the bonds office to turn in her body receipt. Quickly, I pulled out a current file on Ron and Rachel, dug up their joint bank account and transferred money to it.

I headed to the bond's office and watched while puffy white clouds congregated in the brownish blue sky. While my air conditioner blew at full blast keeping me cool, I waited around the corner for her SUV to pull up in front. When it did I pulled in behind her and watched her in her blue jeans, yellow t-shirt and cat boots go in, oblivious to the fact that I was here. I got out and followed behind her, talked briefly to her men, and dismissed them back to Haywood.

When I walked into the office, Stephanie was hands wide in the throes of reenacting the catch of her skip.

"Then he ran up the stairs and Ryan caught him half way up and he tried to pull away but tripped and came sliding back down to land at my feet. Then I stunned him and cuffed him and let the guys drag him back out to the SUV. On the way to the station he woke up and started hitting on Ramon, who was sitting in the back with him, trying to get him to go out on a date Friday night. He told him how hot his body was and what he would like to do to it." She laughed. She rubbed the back of her neck and continued with her story. "Ryan and I couldn't keep a straight face…" she started laughing harder unable to continue.

Suddenly, she realized that Connie, sitting at her desk in a tight red sweater and Lula in her spandex green pants, spotted orange and green shirt with pink curly hair were more focused over her shoulder, than on what she was saying and she half turned to see me and then spun back around acting like I wasn't there.

"Connie, your message said you have another file for RangeMan." I said quietly coming up behind Stephanie.

"Yeah, Laurence Yakcuman, wanted for money laundering and killing his neighbor, who became too nosy about where he was getting all his money from and tried to blackmail him out of some of that money. When he wouldn't pay up, his neighbor called the police on him, and was stupid enough to tell him to his face. When the police showed up they found his neighbor beaten to death with his living room floor lamp and bloody foot prints leading out the door."

"When they went to Yakcuman's house they found him washing off his shoes with bleach. All the evidence is very circumstantial unless they get some usable DNA off of his shoes; which is why he got bail. Now they have enough proof to get him cold for money laundering so of course he didn't show up for his hearing."

I stepped up to her desk and took the file she was holding out to me. I nodded at her and Lula, and turned to Stephanie. "Ready to go Babe?"

"Actually, I'm waiting for Connie to write me a check for the two skips I brought in today. I caught Emanuel Caudillink and so I am going to go car shopping. This is the first time in forever a car has lasted me six months and I am tired of it and going to replace it. I only bought it because I figured it wouldn't last and the heater worked, but now it is starting to get hot and the car keeps overheating, I can't keep fluid in the radiator. The air conditioner doesn't work and the breaks are squishy. It is a perfect car to get blown up and somehow it has survived."

She took the check that Connie was holding out to her and kissed it. "So, Saturday Lula is going to take me car shopping again. I have my eye on this little red Rav4 that is so cute. I loved the Rav4 I had a long time ago and I now have enough money to buy another one." She waved her check around.

"Don't you think that is tempting fate, to buy a flashy new car?" I asked, touched by her enthusiasm.

"Well it's not new, new. It would be just new for me. And the A/C and radio work!" she exclaimed. I am almost undone. I almost lost her last night and her unbridled enthusiasm for the simple things in her life with the unbelievable ability to put the bad things behind her and not get weighed down by them touches me. It is why she still seems so innocent, even with the huge bruise on her cheek and her swollen black eye.

"If anyone deserves a new car, Babe, it is you. Are you ready to go?"

She looked at me and then back at Connie and Lula and I was certain she had more exploits from the day she wanted to tell them, but knew she would come with me.

"My ride is waiting outside." She said simply.

"They had to go back to Haywood. I'll take you home." I told her, coming up behind her so I could smell her strawberry hair and whisper in her ear. "I told you I would help you pack. Tell Lula and Connie goodbye cause you aren't going to see them for a while."

"Bye." She stammered out. I almost wanted to take her hand and lead her away but I knew if I turned to leave she would follow me. I held the door open for her and she led the way to the Cayenne. I opened her door for her, let her get settled and then closed it. I liked taking care of her like she was mine when she wasn't. I was going to like it even more now, because she was going to be.

We drove in silence, stopping by her bank so she could deposit her check, and then on to her apartment, because I am always in my "zone" as she calls it. I call it being aware of everything on the road around me and working out things in my mind. I was strategizing my plan for the evening. Get her packed and back to Haywood for a few glasses of wine and then let it slip that I am in love with her. That I am ready to have a relationship with her. That I want her to dump Morelli forever and be my Babe for good.

I entered her apartment motioning at her to stay in the hallway. I pulled my gun and swept her apartment, checking everywhere a person could be waiting to grab her. I went back to the door and she was standing inside the apartment waiting for me. I holstered my gun and gave her my full attention. I wanted to start with the basics. "How is your face feeling?"

"It hurts. I just don't think about it and then I'm Ok." She told me.

"Did Bobby ever give you some bruise cream for your face?"

"No, I never saw Bobby today."

"When we get back to Haywood we will have to stop by his office and ask him. A little cream will help it heal faster and hurt less. Now we need to get you packed for this trip, are you still okay with coming away with me?"

"I guess. I mean I said I would, but I don't know anything about the trip. Where are we going? How long are we going to be gone? Why are we going away now?"

"You remember the note that was underneath you last night?"

"The one I couldn't read?" She said questioningly.

"Yes, that one. It warned me that what was supposedly done to you was just the beginning and that if I didn't hide my women worse things would happen to them."

"I remember you thought they did all those bad things to me."

"They got a woman who has hair like yours or wore a wig like your hair. They showed you being hit and knocked down. Then they tied her up face down and from the back in the dim lighting it seemed like they had dressed you up and were abusing you." I took her in my arms and looked deeply into her eyes. "Babe it was one of the hardest things I have ever had to live through, thinking those animals had you and were doing all those horrible things to you. But you are the strongest woman I know, and I knew you would survive and I would help you, in every way that I could. When I realized it wasn't you, that they did those things to someone else, I can't tell you how relieved I was, almost joyful that I got you back unharmed."

"Um, my face is all purple and black. I'm not exactly unharmed."

I put my hands on each side of her face. "Relatively unharmed." I couldn't help it I kissed her bruised cheek, then her black eye, then her cute little nose, and then her sweet, sweet lips. I pulled her into my arms and dove into her mouth. Tasting her, teasing her tongue to come and play with mine, stroking it in the oldest rhythm of time. I pulled her closer, molding her body to mine, my mouth slanting over hers. This is what I wanted, what I needed; to connect with her, to be in her, to be where I most wanted to be in her heart, forever. She pulled back, putting her hand on my chest, pushing me away. I had to regroup, I was getting ahead of myself and I needed to slow down. I pulled back and lowered my forehead to hers and looked into her eyes losing myself and all sense of thought and being.

"Stephanie, some things changed for me last night. I made promises to you and to myself that what happened would never happen again. That I would do a better job of protecting you and one way I would do that is by keeping you close instead of pushing you away. So tomorrow I want you to come away with me, with Julie and my family. The note said they were going to be searching for two weeks and then they would turn their attentions elsewhere. So, come away to a tropical Island with me until it is safe for you to be back in Trenton. I would do anything to keep what happened to that woman from happening to any woman in my life, but especially you. I don't want to ever see you hurt like that."

"Yeah the dead part really puts a kink in my plans." She said. I took a deep breath, breathing her in.

"Tomorrow, I will introduce you to my family. My mama, my papa, my sisters, even my pain in the ass brother. Just know now that he is going to hit on you relentlessly and try to take you away from me because that is his way."

"I'm going to meet your whole family?" She took a deep fortifying breath. "Is he as good looking as you are?" She asked me a mischievous look in her eyes.

"Would it matter? He doesn't love you. He could never love you like I love you."

She swallowed hard and I realized this conversation was supposed to take place after a couple glasses of wine. I was screwing this all up. "You love me. Like really love me? No qualifiers, no extra statements." She said quietly.

"Babe." Now I took a deep breath, she has never told me she loves me, so I don't know how much to reveal to her right now. "Last night I realized I have been a fool. I have told you I loved you and I have for a long time. Part of my world revolves around seeing you and being near you. However, I truly have a lot of enemies and I thought I loved you enough to protect you by keeping you at arm's length. But I don't anymore."

"You don't love me that much anymore?" Her voice getting a little wary, her eyes widening in horror.

"I love you too much to push you away anymore. I can't live with myself knowing that if you had been in my bed last night you would have been safe. That I can keep you safer from my enemies if I hold you close, rather than push you away."

"So, you really love me? You love me for real?"

"Babe I love you so much it hurts to let you out of my arms ever again. I want to wrap them around you and never let you go. I want to keep you safe from the world, safe from my enemies."

She just stood there unblinking and unbelieving. "Believe it Babe. I've gotten ahead of myself. I was going to wait to tell you all of this till we got back to my apartment. I'm not trying to push myself on you and I know you may not be ready for any of this, but I have something for you. Something I had made special for you that is in my safe. So, let's get you packed and have some dinner and I will get it for you. It's something that I want you to wear all the time."

She is looking rather excitedly at me and I saw her glance down at her ring finger, where there is no ring. I have a ring for her too but tonight I am going to give her the tracker watch I had made for her. She once told me it should have diamonds and I told her maybe if she was a very good girl. She has earned the diamonds and if I didn't already have it I would have one made for her after last night. After last night, I would move the world to keep her safe. Part of my heart broke last night and I promised her so many things when I thought they were hurting her and the least I can do, now that I have her back safe, is to keep those promises for myself and for her.

"Come on Babe, let's get you packed. It is already five thirty and Ella will have dinner waiting for us. It will go cold if we don't hurry."

This spurred her into motion and she pulled out the matching black suitcase set she bought to take to Hawaii. Hawaii was so memorable for me. I could sit back and play wedded bliss with her. Pretend that we were married and that she was still safe. Well I was going to make her mine and I would make it safe. I am going to bring the ring and when she is ready I would propose to her on another tropical beach. Then I will send a message with Sergio that all my enemies will take notice and no one will dare threaten any of my women ever again.

She started pulling out clothes and I went into her bathroom and packed up all her make-up and hair brush and ties, toothbrush, floss and paste in her travel toiletries bag. It was exploding out but I had ulterior motives. I was moving her into my place after this trip and the more she had at my place, the less reasons she would have for coming back here.

I gathered up some of the things that always has her smelling so good: her very berry strawberry shampoo and conditioner, her tangerine dream body soap, citrus body lotion, sun screen, hair gel, curl control serum, and a few more hair products that were in her medicine cabinet, her blow dryer and hair straightener. Not that I had ever seen her hair straight. I carried it all to her bedroom and started packing it into her suitcase.

"Oh, I can't bring all that." She told me. "There is not enough room in my suitcases, and it will be too heavy. I will just get some travel size bottles at the store-"

"Babe we are taking a private jet, so there is no limit to the amount of luggage you can bring, there is no size limit on bottles, there is no weight limit, and I want you to be comfortable while we are gone and have all your usual stuff with you." I explained away my behavior. "Just start laying out all the clothes you want to bring on the bed and I will pack it for you."

"What are we going to be doing? What should I bring? How many outfits? I need to pack some shorts and shirts and shoes and my wrap, underwear and some bikinis, are my bikinis modest enough to wear around your family?" She looked at me watching her in silence. "Sorry now I am rambling." She said. I could see her berating herself for her verbal diarrhea, but in a world where everyone is too closed lipped, I liked that her thoughts could spill so unfettered from her mind.

I grabbed her up in my arms before I spoke. "We are going to be gone two weeks. So, fourteen pairs of underwear to start. Do you want me to pick them out for you?" I offered.

"No," she blushed ten shades of red and started picking out some of her semi-revealing undergarments.

"Make sure you bring that black set that looks so sexy on you." I told her.

"Sure, like you are going to see me in my underwear." She gave me an 'in your dreams' kind of look but I knew we were going to be in the same cabin and I was expecting to see her in a lot less than her underwear but I didn't want to embarrass or upset her too soon.

"Ok, after underwear, night clothes." I told her. It was frustrating, she insisted on sleeping in something. "What do you need? Two or three sets of night clothes for two weeks?" As far as I was concerned this was a habit I was going to get rid of as soon as possible. Not only did I like looking at her naked, I liked feeling her naked body curled up sleeping next to mine. I knew how to get her that way was to make love to her till she fell asleep. This was something I was more than able and willing to do.

I was folding up her underwear and wanting her to go into the other room so I could pick out a few pair of my own choosing to bring. Maybe I would come back tonight. I knew hidden in the back of her drawer were a teddy or two and a body hugging red lace masterpiece that she would look great in. No, I knew better, I needed to buy some of my own and give them to her. If she knew I have been through her underwear drawer she would be mad at me and think I am the deviant that she doesn't know I am. I smiled to myself. This is going to be so much fun.

"Next you need several bathing suits and whatever you wear on the beach." I prodded, wondering if she still had the little black number she had in Hawaii.

"What about my wrap?" She questioned.

"Show me." She pulled out a red, mostly shear wrap that hugged her curves.

"Try it on, I can't imagine it on you." I told her lying through my perfectly straight white teeth. She just gave me a scathing look and threw it on the pile.

"Don't you have a bathing suit cover up that you like to wear?" I asked.

"Oh, yeah." She dug through a drawer and pulled out the royal blue cover up with a repeating black geometric pattern on it that she'd had in Hawaii.

I was packing as quickly as she piled the clothes on the bed. "OK, now you need just regular clothes to wear and whatever you want to fly in tomorrow."

"Of course." I could see the light bulb go on over her head. She turned around and pulled out a black pair of Pilates pants, that she doesn't wear any underwear under. A sports bra that holds her perky breasts up tight and an oversized ratty blue Rangers shirt that I know used to belong to Morelli. I was going to get rid of it as soon as she turned her back.

"Babe, you're going to be meeting my family tomorrow and some of my sisters are very fashion conscious. Can you wear something else besides that ratty old shirt? How about that black shirt you wore when you first started working at RangeMan? The one I told you to always keep covered. You would look good in that."

She hit me lightly on the chest and I reveled in the casual contact. I wanted her more now than I ever had before. Somehow, I had given myself permission to have her and it was all I could do to not throw her over my shoulder and cart her off to my cave.

"To meet your family, I do want to look nice." She picked out a dressy blue shirt that had three buttons at the neck and little lace down the front. That was my babe. Sexy, casual and classy. I set these clothes aside. I would pack them last so they were on top of her suitcase. Like I had packed her sleepwear on the bottom of her suitcase hoping she would just grab one of my shirts and wear it to bed, preferably with nothing on underneath it.

She started laying out different pairs of shorts, some that I recognized, and two pairs of jeans. She went into her drawer and pulled out several t-shirts, then went into her closet and pulled out a few more shirts. I started packing her jeans, shorts, and shirts, quickly filled up the large suitcase and started on the carry on.

"Why don't you bring a few more pairs of shorts, it's not like this place has a washer we can use, and a couple of sundresses? That will be comfortable in the sun." She dug out two more pairs of shorts and four sundresses from her closet and threw them on the bed. "You only have two pairs of jeans here and you may want some more to wear when it gets dark and cooler on the beach so a couple more pairs of jeans would probably be good." She looked at me funny but pulled out three more pairs of jeans and laid them on the bed.

"Ok, I only see six shirts and that is not enough for two weeks, you need a couple more." I knew the suitcases weren't going to hold much more, but that she had a large gym bag with a shoulder strap that we could bring so I went into her closet to dig it out, because I was going to get her to fill that up with clothes too.

"What about a dressy dress or two in case my family wants to go out, or I want to take you to dinner. That red dress you have would be a good one, then maybe that black one you have." She looked at me with a funny look, like she knew I was up to something, but couldn't figure out what.

She handed me the red dress, laid out the black dress, then she handed me a new deep burgundy dress that looked like it had a low-neck line and was tightly fitted around the hips. The bag was almost half full. "Now shoes. What shoes do you wear with these?" I kept up a monologue as she bent over in front of me to dig through her shoes. She came up with the red pair that matched the red dress, and a very high black pair that I don't know if I've ever seen her wear. "Don't you wear a specific bra with these?"

She gave me that funny light bulb look, and followed that with a 'how the hell did I know that?' look. I'm observant Babe, very observant about what you wear. She walked back over to her underwear drawer and pulled out two push-up bras, matching panties and I knew we were getting somewhere.

"Now we need to round out your shoes. Tennis shoes, socks, flip flops, whatever you wear on a plane." She pulled out a couple of pairs including several pairs of sandals and said, "How do you know what I need to bring?"

"Babe, I spent years packing for the military, they teach you what to bring, what to leave, and how to pack it tight and efficiently. It's the same process except I don't wear bras or dresses and I don't have quite the assortment of shoes. Now you need your passport." I gave her one of my big smiles and she smiled back at me.

I zipped up her suitcases and bag and hauled them out to the door.

"Now we need to vacation proof your apartment."

"Is this a vacation?" she looked taken aback.

"No. it's a flight from bad things we don't want to think about so I would rather call it a vacation and pretend there aren't any bad guys trying to hurt the women I love." I led the way into the kitchen and started looking for everything fresh to get it out of her fridge but suddenly she was standing in the way.

"Excuse me, I can clean out my own fridge. Go sit in the living room or something. I don't need an audience for this." She got her trash can and dragged it over to the fridge.

I walked to the kitchen doorway and leaned against the wall with my arms crossed as I watched her pull out a bag of carrots, grapes, half a wilted head of lettuce, some broccoli heads that were turning brown, three shrunken apples, two oranges that still looked good, half a gallon of milk, and an almost empty container of orange juice. She put the carrots, oranges and grapes in a plastic grocery bag, threw away the rest of the produce and dumped the juice and milk down the drain, throwing the containers away. I just stood there in the doorway watching. She dropped a carrot and grape in Rex's cage, then picked it up with the bag of food and her purse and said, "I got Rex if you can carry the rest."

"Let's take the trash out too, it doesn't need to sit here while you're gone." I said reaching for the can. She quickly set Rex down, pushed the garbage further away from me and changed it out quickly, tying a knot in the top and putting a new bag in its place.

"I can carry the trash." I told her taking the trash bag to the front door. I easily picked up the gym bag and slung it over my shoulder, grabbed the two suitcases, picked up the trash bag and turned to her. "Ready?"

She nodded to me, looking like she wasn't certain about this at all.

I opened her door and wondered for the umpteenth time why I didn't have her apartment wired with a monitored security system. This was something I was going to rectify as soon as we got back. I locked her door, picked up her suitcases again and led her to the elevator.

I was happier than I had been since this whole thing started. I was taking everyone away somewhere safe and I was going to get Stephanie alone for two weeks. I didn't want to rush her and I knew she still considered herself to be in a relationship with Morelli. I was going to approach this as delicately and stealthily as a covert mission. Planned out and executed with precision.

We walked out to the Cayenne under the early spring evening sun and I mused. Step one was getting her to go on this trip. Step two is getting her in my bed by telling her we needed to share a room. Step three is to wine her and dine her, to spend time having fun with her. Step four is to get her to make a commitment to a relationship with me. Step five is to make wild passionate love all night long. I needed to get condoms, a two-week supply of condoms.

As soon as we get back she was going to start on the pill or shots. I'm not going to be sharing her with anyone or seeing other people when we are "off" because we are never going to be "off" and she would never see anyone else ever again. She was mine now and forever, not that I was ready for marriage but I was ready to commit to her permanently.

To be continued…

A/N Thank you! Thank you! Thank you all for your reviews! They are all loved and appreciated. I have five more chapters for daily updates then it is going to go to weekly updates.

As always big THANK YOU to my beta Sassysaint who makes my story's more readable. You are AWESOME! THANK YOU! If you haven't read her stories they are worth your time and will give you something to read while waiting for the next chapter to post = )

OK this is going to be a Babe HEA, but can Ranger convince Steph that he is the right choice? Please read and review.


	8. Chapter 8 Final Touches

Chapter 8 Final Touches

Wednesday Evening April 13

 _As soon as we get back she was going to start on the pill or shots. I'm not going to be sharing her with anyone or seeing other people when we are "off" because we are never going to be "off" and she would never see anyone else ever again. She was mine now and forever, not that I was ready for marriage but I was ready to commit to her permanently._

On our way to Haywood Steph's phone rang and she looked at the read out and rolled her eyes. After three rings, she heaved a great sigh and finally answered.

"Hello."

"Hi, mom. How are you today?"

"No, I'm mostly ok. I just have a few bruises on my face."

"Mom, you can't just listen to all the gossip-" She was quiet for a few minutes as she listened frustration growing on her face.

"No mom I know Mrs. Perlaki's daughter doesn't get kidnapped, and I AM still with Joe. I was in his house when it happened."

"No, I don't know who those men were, but it's not related to my job." She hesitated.

"Mom I was unconscious when they put me up there. Then Ranger saved me and I'm alright." She paused.

"No, I can't come for dinner tonight and you will be glad to know I am going away for a few weeks till these bad guys are caught." She explained and then listened.

"I'm glad you are relieved, I'm still not sure it is the right thing, but Ranger's got his men on it. They are going to find these men and get them off the street." She said.

"I haven't seen the video, but really mom, I'm doing ok. I just got hit lightly a few times."

"I told you I haven't seen the video but I heard the other woman died, so I am being careful." She told her.

"Yes, well I'm going away with his family. He is putting everyone in hiding till they can catch these guys."

"No, I don't know where, it is secret. We don't find out till we get there." She listened.

"Tomorrow." She said.

"I don't know, about two weeks or until they catch these guys,"

"I'll be safe tonight I promise. I'll probably have a guard or something."

"I love you too. I'll call again when I can. Good bye." She hung up the phone and turned to me. "She is very worried over the situation. Shockingly relieved that you were able to save me from off the side of the building."

She looked agitatedly at me. "I just can't believe that everyone knows what's in that video. It's like they played it on the six o'clock news. She is glad and even proud of me for agreeing to leave with your family to get away from the danger. That is the one thing helping her stress levels."

"Babe you know the burg gossip hot line is alive and well. When that woman was found dead we had to release the whole DVD to the police, but I had Tank edit out the part where they shot you up, I didn't want that going all around town."

"Thanks, yeah I forgot about that actually. It's all just a blur in my mind."

"I wasn't sure what you remembered from last night, heroin can make everything fuzzy and seem unreal."

"Well being tied up in a dark bathroom was real but I am glad I was out of it when they hung me off the building. It was scary enough to wake up like that but I would have freaked if I was awake while they did it and then they probably would have dropped me and I would be a splat on the pavement."

I didn't say anything. What was there to say? I was glad that she was drugged for most of it, she has practically forgotten it even happened, but those images from that tape and her hung off that building were burned into my heart and brain. I was going to make it safe for her and all my women and this was never going to happen again. When I got to Sergio I would send a clear message to all my enemies – you threaten my family I take you out, no discussion, it's the same as you signing your own death warrant.

When we got to Haywood I opened the door to seven and dropped her suitcases off. Took Rex from her arms, put him on the kitchen counter and ushered her back into the elevator. "Let's go find Bobby, some cream will really help your face."

We stepped out of the elevator on three and I led her into Bobby's office, where he was packing his medical bags in the back room. "Bobby, Stephanie is here to see if you have anything to help her face."

"Of course, I do. Come here and let me see how you are doing today." She walked in hesitantly, her dislike of all things medical clear on her face. "You certainly have a couple of doozies there. Hate to see the other guy." There won't be much to see once I get hold of them, I thought. She shook her head and half rolled her eyes, not remembering herself what happened she was so drugged at the time. "Let me give you some bruise cream for your face. Is anything else hurting?"

"No, except for my face I feel fine."

"No residual problems from the drugs?" He asked her.

"Not any more. I had a bit of a drug hang over this morning." She explained.

He hands her a white tube. "Put it on immediately and every four hours during the day until they turn yellowish. That's when you can stop."

I took the tube out of her hand and opened it ready to smear it on and she yanked it back out of my hands and reapplied the lid. "Thank you, Bobby," she told him and turned towards the door. "I can do it myself." She hissed under her breath at me and walked out. My phone had been dinging repeatedly and I took all the pictures I had received and forwarded them on to Bones telling him that was the last of the pictures. To text me if he needed anything more and to send me the updated digital family album when it was complete.

Dinner was waiting for us when we got back upstairs. Steamed wild rice with creamed chicken and vegetables in a creamy broth. I ate in silence, she ate with her normal orgasmic sounds, rendering a response from my lower regions that I didn't want her to see. This next part of our relationship was going to be about a committed relationship not just great sex. The sex was going to be explosive and I was excited about having her in my bed every night, particularly because I slept better with her next to me. She seemed to keep the bad dreams at bay. I made sure she had two glasses of wine at dinner and then poured her a third, once we had cleaned up the dishes, and asked her to join me in the living room.

I sat her on the couch next to me and turned on the TV flipping through looking for a game or movie we could watch. I settled on "Passengers" it said it was a romantic Si-Fi so maybe it would help set the mood. I got up and went to my closet and got the watch out of the safe.

"Stephanie, remember for Orin I gave you that watch?" She nodded at me. "Well I have a better one for you now." I opened the box and handed it to her. She gasped in surprise.

"It has diamonds." She said appreciatively.

"Yes, because you deserve diamonds." And I wasn't joking. Once we are together I am going to buy her a lot of jewelry with diamonds; earrings, necklaces, bracelets; all with tracking devices in them. I gently took it out of its box.

"The buttons aren't colored, they are all platinum so you will have to remember. "This top button sets the time. This lower button is the alarm button and when you press it a red plus sign comes on in the middle of the heart. That's when you know you are broadcasting and calling for help. The third button on the other side is a new feature we have never tried before. We have tested it and it works but you have to be totally alone, no bad guys around. When you push it, you can hear a guy in the control room talking to you. Put it on, let's try it out."

She slipped it on her left arm and pushed the second button. The red plus sign showed up and she said, "Testing, testing, can you hear me?" and then pressed the third button. "Copy we read you, time is 19:35 this is operations and we hear you loud and clear." I said "Thank you, this concludes our test." And told her to shut it off.

"Now, babe, I want you to always wear this watch, you can take it off when you are in the shower, but I want you to immediately put it back on. Wear it everywhere you go and even while you sleep. That way if someone grabs you in the middle of the night I can still find you."

"Yeah but I never would have had a chance to push the button last night. By the time, I was awake they had me tied up."

"Babe, the button signals us you are in danger, but even without it we can track you. The first thing I did when I found out you were in trouble was pull up your trackers and they were all at Morelli's. I need something that will stay on you so I can find you before you get hung off the side of a building."

"Ok, I want to say you can't always make me wear it because I feel funny with you always being able to track me but it is so beautiful. You did a great job picking this one out." She smiled at me as she looked at the watch.

I had looked at hundreds of watches to find one big enough to hide all the equipment in: tracking bug, a mini mic, speaker, extra-large battery, and one pretty enough that she would want to wear it all the time. It was a beautiful platinum watch with a circle of diamonds around the face, a diamond for each number, and a heart outlined in gold and inlaid with diamonds just below and to the left of the hands in the center between nine and six. Then another smaller gold heart to the right of center at the number four, with the date in the middle of it. She sat ogling the watch and I turned back to the TV. I put my arm around her again and she leaned against me tucking her head under my chin.

Ten minutes later she suddenly stiffened and sat forward reaching to get her cup of wine. I assume she just remembered that she was still with Morelli and didn't want to get too cozy with me.

"Relax, babe, I'm not going to bite or jump you sitting on the couch." I brought my arm back down to my side and waited for her to relax again.

This was reminding me of when, in my sophomore year of high school, I took Jennifer Cartel to the movies. I spent the whole movie making moves on her, and kept getting rebuffed. She had worn this cute little red skirt and finally after I was holding her hand against her knee I let go and started drawing little patterns on her leg as I slowly moved upwards. At a pivotal point in the movie, I slipped my hand underneath her skirt.

When she realized, she put her hand on mine letting me know that was as far as I could go. I never made it to third base that night, but two dates later we hit a home run. We dated the rest of my sophomore year and probably would have my junior year but over the summer her family moved to Phoenix, Arizona and we lost touch. But she had obviously bragged about my sexual expertise because I had a lot of girls seeking me out the next year, even older senior girls slipping me notes, asking friends to introduce them and even dropping things in front of me, bending over so I could get a glimpse of boobs or legs, showing off whatever they thought was their best feature.

I never lacked for a date and never saw anyone exclusively. By general consent the girls were willing to share to get a piece of me. I smiled at the night my senior year, I took two girls out together and neither one wanted to go home first.

That set the stage for the past ten years during which I have had women chasing me, me easily picking up anyone I set my sights on. "Dating" as many women as I could, preferring quick one-night stands and avoiding all romantic entanglements. Now all that has changed overnight and I am ready to get tangled. Actually, I am a spider weaving my web ready to catch my fly and never let her go again.

I waited till she had downed half her wine and for a slow part of the movie to start talking.

"Stephanie, I have said a lot of things to you about not ever wanting to get involved with you, that my life doesn't lend itself to relationships, but things have changed for me." She turned to look at me, wariness in her eyes. "I have had all my old beliefs shattered and I am open to having a relationship with you. A long term serious relationship with you." I explained.

She looked at me a little bleary eyed and I made a mental note to have 'The Cure' waiting for her in the morning.

"Ranger, I'm with Morelli right now. I can't just break up with him because you say you're finally ready. Besides you're just saying that because of what happened last night. What if you change your mind tomorrow or next week."

"Babe, I'm never going to change my mind. Last night I realized I have already put you in danger. I have gotten too close, you are never going to be out of danger ever again, but I can protect you better keeping you close, rather than pushing you away and keeping you at arm's length."

"So, now you want to be close after I have been taken again by one of your maniacs, trying to get back at you. Really that is not very romantic, and I'm not sure it is a good reason to have a relationship."

"Stephanie, I can protect you better than him. If you were staying here last night you would not have been kidnapped."

"So, you want to have a relationship so you can keep me safe? That's not a reason to have a relationship either." Damn, I was hoping after a few drinks she would have been more agreeable, less resistant.

"Stephanie, the reason I want to have a relationship is because I love you. I have loved you for a long time but I pushed you away because I thought I was keeping you safe. Now I realize it's too late. I have gotten too close, too many times, and my enemies know about you now. There is no longer a reason for me to stay away and all the reasons in the world for me to keep you close, be totally devoted to you, have a relationship and protect you better than anyone else could ever dream to."

"Wow, Ranger," She half smiled at me. "This is the most you have ever told me…the most you have ever opened up to me. Is your throat getting sore?" She smirked. "Because I swear this is a record for how much I have ever heard you talk voluntarily, much less open up about your feelings."

I know that I have always been a private man, but over the years I've tried to tell her a little about how I feel, without exposing myself to getting stomped on by her. Now when I am trying to open up she harasses me for it. I inwardly smile, at least I am getting something out of her, hopefully by the end of tonight we will have a shift in where our relationship stands. I won't even try to seduce her tonight, I would never take advantage of her like that, but once we are on this trip all bets are off.

"Babe," I hesitated trying to find the right words taking her right hand in mine and looking deeply into her eyes. "Besides Julie, you are the most important person in my life and it took till me seeing that video to realize I have been a fool trying to close you out and stay away from you. I did it because I felt like your relationship with Morelli deserved a chance. You deserved that chance at a Burg life. Marriage, house, 2.5 kids and a normal life where you wouldn't always be in danger. Last night flipped a switch for me and I realized that it hasn't worked. Your relationship with Morelli is not working out and I am constantly fighting myself to stay away from you. But I knew nothing was going to change unless I changed and for this to go anywhere; I have to step up, open up and tell you how I really feel."

"I don't see how you can expect me to accept you suddenly wanting to have a relationship with me? You have spent most of the time I have known you telling me you weren't relationship material."

"I have kept you in my life for a long time just at arm's length. I've found it impossible to leave you alone. I said what I said in the past to keep you from getting too close. To keep you from wanting or expecting what I couldn't give. In my heart I want to fall asleep with you in my arms and wake up with you wrapped around me. I want to see you across from me at the breakfast table and look forward to having dinner with you every night. I want to take you out and spend time together. But in my life, that puts you in a lot of danger."

"Ranger…" she hesitated, "I don't know what to say. I have waited a long time to hear words like that from you. But Joe and I have been together for longer than I have known you, and I'm not so susceptible that every time a guy shows up claiming to love me I fall for it." Her words were slightly slurred and her eyes were unfocused, but still she seemed single-minded.

"Babe, I'm not any guy, and I helped train you so you could catch Joe and you certainly were not with him at that time." My phone rang and I sent it to voicemail, they could leave a message and I would call them back.

"I've known Joe since I was a kid. He was my first, and he loves me. I can't cheat on him." She said defiantly. My phone beeped with a text. ' _Target returned 19:06, captured and subdued, orders?'_

"Babe, you don't have to make any decisions tonight. I'm not saying dump Joe," (actually I am) "and jump in my bed. I am throwing my hat in the ring. I am making myself a contender, a possibility, an option that wasn't there before." I paused. "This is terrible timing, Babe. I have to go, they just caught one of the bad guys outside my parent's home." I leaned forward kissing her forehead and smelling her hair. "Finish watching the movie, don't wait up; I don't know when I will be back. Don't make yourself crazy over this we can discuss it more tomorrow."

"Don't get shot." She said as she watched me walk out the door.

I called Tank as I ran down the stairs. "They caught a guy coming back for the gun outside my parent's house. Can you come?"

"On my way."

"Reschedule tonight's meeting for 07:00. Tell the men to be ready to leave at 09:00."

I called the guys back. "Report."

"At 18:58, a silver Bronco pulled in several houses away and dropped subject off. Subject made his way through backyards. We observed him entering the target's yard and flanked him. When he came back over the fence we stunned him. He is restrained and shackled in the backseat. Once we got him down Chester tried to sneak up on the driver, but he was spotted and the driver drove off."

On my way out of the building I stopped in the basement and got money out of the vault. Twenty-five thousand isn't that much but mercenaries will sometimes spill for money, especially if it keeps them from getting hurt.

Tank and I piled into the Cayenne and we drove out into the dark night that had been cooled by a light rain leaving the air smelling clean and refreshed.

"On my way with Tank." And I disconnected. Tank was a very useful guy for interrogations. He scared the begezus out of most guys and between the two of us we had a way to make men talk without ever having to get physical. But when we do have to get physical, it only takes getting hit by him one or two times to make them rethink their position and spill.

When we arrived, I flashed my lights at Chester and Miguel and they pulled out and followed me. I knew all the closest hotels near my parent's house but we were going over to Wilson street. Wilson was Newark's version of Stark street. It started off bad and slowly turned into a war zone. I was going to a hotel that was just outside of gang territory. The Little Sleeper, was a dilapidated three-story building, with flaking gray paint, outlined by what was at one time, yellow and blue trim. Now it stood up to its name as most rooms were rented by the hour, by working women up and down the street. It was exactly what we needed. It was someplace no one sees or hears anything. I got six rooms, at the end of the third story hall as far away from anyone else as was available.

We entered the room and I left Miguel and Chester outside as guards. I lugged the perp in and dropped him unceremoniously on the floor. He was middle Eastern looking with dark hair, brown eyes and darker skin wearing jeans and a blue t-shirt. He quickly rolled over and pushed himself up. This was one of the unnamed guys who hurt the unknown brunette that was killed. Fortunately, for him, he wasn't one of the men that hit Stephanie. I was going to use every excuse to be rough, but that saved him a little. Tank lifted the double size mattress up and set it in front of the door to muffle the sounds going down the hall.

"We saw what you did to that woman, and we have a mind to skip the questioning and do a repeat performance on you, without the red dress." I watched him judging the lack of reaction in his eyes. I waited a few minutes as I watched him watch us.

"I have some questions for you if you answer them I will give you several thousand American dollars and return you to the street. If you don't my friend here will tenderize you and then we will try again."

"I am no traitor," he said with a heavy accent.

"You are a mercenary, you'll do anything for money. I am offering you money for your services. Or offering you pain for your services. One of those options has you walking out alive and well. The other is to be determined." I have learned if you tell them they are going to die they become very uncooperative but you always leave the option for death on the table. He sat there wordless and unmoving trying to stare me down. "Tank would you introduce yourself."

Two hours later we left with all the information he had and my suspicions were confirmed. His name was Ohamad Koturi. He was most recently from Egypt according to his passport. There was someone running this team, named Boris, from Colombia, no last name, who was not involved last night. Said Boris was out-of-town last night, but he didn't know where.

There were seven men in total, including Mukhtar and Boris. Mukhtar was brought in to draw me out, thinking I could trust him. That he was doing me a favor so I would believe that he was telling me the truth about the two weeks. It was his idea to use a prostitute, a girl they had hired for the night in New York, named Krystal. When Boris showed up and found out about the substitution he was mad. Mukhtar disappeared this morning. Boris had said it was time for him to go back to where he came from.

They were in the US for several targets, "All of Sergio's enemies." He knew of three. I was the first one. He also knew of David Assarigo and Stephen Conklin. Assarigo was one of the geologists that found the Uranium rich land but when he learned who Sergio planned to sell the Uranium to, went back to the States and ratted him out to the government.

The third target, Stephen Conklin was now living in Seattle. Stephen had been an accountant, who had set up business accounts for Sergio, but several months after he left some of the accounts lost money mysteriously and he seemed to have become independently wealthy. They were going to have a "talk" with Steve and see if they couldn't determine the source of his new-found wealth.

He thought that there might be more targets in the future, but only knew about the first three. They had six months to get all the targets before their B-1 visa's ran out and they had to leave the country, not that they would. They were being paid $1,000,000 each and would be given tickets back to France, where they had flown in from, when the assignments were completed.

The shooting of the house, was for fun, to raise the threat level and see if they could get us to run and move the targets. They didn't have enough men to storm the house, they were waiting just outside the neighborhood with guns and trucks. They were going to shoot the drivers and get what targets they could in the chaos.

They are expecting to watch and take any opening they can for the next two weeks, raising the threat level each time. Then go get another target and come back to get the women when I let my guard down. They had an explosives specialist who was supposed to blow up my vehicles and men while they were out patrolling and eventually attack Haywood itself, attaching bombs to several vehicles or having large packages delivered and blowing up the building. I had wanted to know why the game, why not just take the women before I knew that there was a threat. He wasn't sure, only that Sergio hated me the most and wanted to torment me before I was killed.

They had very specific goals to terrorize me, make me crazy, and spend as much money as possible trying to protect my women, my men, my business. Then at the end of the game, to kill all my women and when I go to the funerals, me. Anything else they do to them is optional, but the more suffering they can cause me with each death the better.

The video and warnings were given to me to signal the start of the game. Stephanie was supposed to be first, now she was being saved for last. She was so easy to take they were sure that once I let my guard down they could get her again and next time she wouldn't get the drugs, they would torture her for days till she begged for death; recording every agonizing minute for me.

They have six men from all over, plus Boris, in their group. He only knew first names. Jack (Jacque), Felipe, Santiago, Harry, Mukhtar. They are held up in an abandoned warehouse near the river, we had directions not a real address.

After he was well tenderized and had given us all the information he had, we walked him out to the SUV's. I sent Miguel and Chester ahead to scout the location and Tank called Jim and Martin to load up weapons, equipment and meet us in Newark. If he had taken the money, or was somewhat willing to cooperate I could let him live, but he was there to hurt my women, my family and me. Nothing I could do or say would take him from his path to a million dollars, so I had to get rid of him another way. We disposed of him in a dumpster in gang no-mans-land. He was already wearing blue Crips colors; we marked the kill as done by the Bloods with an unlicensed gun.

We scouted the warehouse, while we waited, and found the silver Bronco and white Chevy truck outside, but no lights or movement inside or out. Everything here was dry, the evening rain either not making it this far or turned and headed a different direction. When they arrived, we got armed for bear and went in with stealth, two men at the front door, two men at the side door Tank and myself at the backdoor. We entered silently and searched the building finding no one, but in an office on the second floor there was a note. 'You took one of ours we take two of yours.'

Tank sent out a flash message to each security team to check in and hunker down. To watch out for an ambush, that subjects are on the move. We decided to put four men on each location for the overnight teams, two extra vehicles for Leyla's and Isabella's families.

Tank and I headed back to Trenton with Miguel and Chester following us. We sent Jim and Martin to go to Leyla's house and guard them till morning. All the way back, I thought about the plan to take Sergio out and finally confided it to Tank. I would get them all to Florida and then after a few days, leave them on the Island and go take Sergio out. I needed to know where Sergio was and our informant didn't even know what country Sergio was from. He had only ever dealt with Boris.

As I went through my reverie, I realized I had some critical shopping for the trip. Condoms. If I happened to get through to Stephanie I was going to want lots and lots of condoms. I told Tank I needed to make an urgent stop and found an all-night drugstore before we left Newark. They sold Magnums from three packs that wouldn't last me all night to a thirty-six pack which I know from the past I could go through in a week. What the hell, Stephanie was going to be mine. I bought two thirty-six packs it wasn't like they would go bad. Back in the truck Tank glanced at my purchases and raised an eyebrow at me. "Something I don't know?"

"She's going to be mine." I told him simply.

"And she's not already?"

"Not yet, she is certain that she is still in a relationship with Morelli and is not going to cheat on him."

"Isn't she?"

"Not as of last night. When she got taken from his bed, she became fair game, as far as I am concerned. He can't protect her and I can. I am no longer going to leave her protection in his hands and I'm not leaving her in his hands either."

He smirked and looked away.

"What?" I demanded.

"Your family is not going to take to you locking yourself away in your cabin and fucking her all day and all night. You have to sleep sometime and at some point, you are supposed to be leaving to take out Sergio. I'm just trying to figure out when you are going to get a chance to use seventy-two condoms. Understand I have seen you perform. It's not your ability I am questioning here it is the circumstances."

"There are no drug stores on this island. It would be worse to have the opportunity and not be able to, rather than have the ability and not the opportunity. I'm preparing for all eventualities and when we get back she is going on a better option. It might take me a little while to persuade her but I won't live in condoms like the cop."

"That's only because he is always taking detours when she breaks it off with him. And doesn't care if she is free with her wares, while they are apart."

"As long as it isn't with me."

"He just knows you have a bigger dick and doesn't want you ruining his steady thing."

"Maybe, I think he knows she loves me and that given a chance will choose me. I just haven't given her that choice."

"and now you are?"

"And now I am. She will be mine. No question. The only question is how long it will take me to convince her I am a real option that she can count on. I have spent so long keeping her at arms-length, she doesn't trust me yet."

"If you really want her I know you will eventually get her. Especially since she is booked in your cabin every night. You haven't told her that part yet, have you?"

"Maybe not yet." He just smirked. He knew I was a determined bastard and once fixated on something never stopped going after it until I got it. But he also knew how stubborn Stephanie was and that she is my weakness. I have a hard time saying no to her and not giving in to whatever she asks me for.

Once I got back to the apartment I got busy. I still had to pack, and I needed two bags. One bag for the vacation and one bag for the visit to Sergio. The second bag was bigger, filled with armament and I even added a third backpack of repelling options, including my secret batman toy. I had a real life grappling gun that could shoot over fifty feet, about four stories, hook to my rappelling gear and pull me up. I am too heavy for it to do it on its own, but it makes a great assist as I climb a wall. Finally, everything was ready. I took a shower to wash off the day and climbed into bed next to Stephanie.

I laid in bed knowing I needed to sleep some before I had to get up and deal with my family. It was hard enough to deal with them fully rested, being up for twenty-four hours tended to leave me abrasive and short tempered. I gave up the fight and pulled Stephanie into my arms. In sleep, she did not resist me and with her peaceful deep breathing lulling me, I quickly fell asleep.

Thursday April 14

I woke up at 05:00, untwined myself from Stephanie's grasp, and headed down stairs. I did my regular workout and ran my usual eight miles. I showered, dressed in my RangeMan black uniform and prepared for the meeting. I suddenly remembered and texted Angelia's men not to let her bring the dog.

When Ella brought breakfast up I checked in with her progress on the outfits. She had gone to a bulk outlet warehouse in New York and was able to get plenty of black tank tops and shorts. She was up late embroidering them all and she showed me the new design. She had turned the R of RangeMan into a pistol. The back of the R was the grip, the downward angle slash of the R was the trigger, the top part of the R extended into a barrel and a bullet flew out of the end of the barrel and stopped over the n.

It looked very attractive and I could tell she'd worked hard on it. It really added to the name and I hadn't realized a logo could add so much. I complemented the design, thanked her for all the hard work but asked her not to put this logo on our regular t-shirts yet. That I had to run it through the lawyer's office and make sure it was available to be trademarked. She smiled at me and I told her to keep a man with her every time she leaves the building until further notice. That if they can't get to the main targets they might go after her. She nodded, "I will be careful" and left. I sent a companywide text that Ella was not named as a target, but we are going to treat her like one and she gets a man every time she leaves the building.

At 07:00 I called the meeting to order. I showed them the shirts and shorts, explained that these were strictly for wearing while patrolling and guarding on the beach. Told them there was a stack for each of them, and when the meeting was over to thank Ella. Then I got down to business.

"Chester and Martin apprehended a subject last night coming back for the gun that was stashed. The bad news is that they knew we got him and have vowed to take two of ours in retaliation, so be on guard for yourself as well as the targets. We know from our information gathering session, last night that this is a long-term game and it won't end in two weeks like was previously mentioned. That they are going to keep coming till all of the women are tortured and dead, making me spend a lot of time and resources trying to protect them and then killing me in the end. Ultimately their plan is to kill me.

"Our plan is to get my whole family out of town, some place safe and fun for two weeks or until the threat is dealt with. Today we fly by private jet to Miami. Spend the night in Homestead. Board the Blue Island Cruise Ship, The Retreat after 14:00 tomorrow. We are on the ship till Saturday morning, arriving at a private island 07:00 where we will dock and unload. There are twenty-four private cabana's that we have reserved. The ship leaves the Island at 18:00. Once we are alone on the Island we can relax a little. The cruise ships come every Tuesday and Saturday to the Island. Heavy guard and restricted movements on those days. After Tuesday, I expect my family will be settled and I am going to leave the Island to go resolve the problem. You will stay on the Island with the family until I get back or until Tank says to come home. We will fly back by small plane. Everyone must have their passport."

"There are ten main targets. Stephanie, My mom Maria, My four sisters: Leyla, Angelia, Isabella, and Oshanna, and my mother's mother: grandmother Rosa. In Miami there is my daughter, Julie, Rachel, my ex-wife and Julie's mother, and my Father's mother: Sonja Manoso. Tank is passing out the schedule and personal assignments."

"Starting today you ten will each be assigned a target. You are with them all day, for everything until they are in their rooms for the night. Bones made a digital family album that has been emailed to each of you and a phone book with everyone's phone numbers. There are 27 people in my family. Read through it and become familiar with your target and their immediate families. Four of you will be guarding the group and once we are on the island, the perimeter, from 07:00 to 19:00, and the last six of you are on overnights guarding from 19:00 to 07:00.

"Everyone will wear a radio while they are on duty, binoculars, a side arm and a stun gun. On the Island, on days the ship is gone, you will be carrying the LSAT LMG's. I am bringing the cellphone broadcasting unit and an internet broadcasting unit so we will have use of our cell phones and the family can use their electronics safely.

"Finally, this is a unique request, it is for my family's comfort. There are twenty of you and they are not going to remember your names. I want them to feel like they can approach you, talk to you, not be too afraid of you. There are only going to be five other workers on the island. So, I am requesting each of you wear your name badge on a lanyard around your neck so they can know your names and be more at ease around you. Ella gave me a pile of lanyards. Pick one up with your outfits.

"When I leave, my family will be told I am called away for business. Keep to that story and tell them I will be back as soon as I can. This will not end until I end it. I will do what I must to keep my family safe. Be at my mother's house in Newark at 10:00 only take four vehicles that's five men to a vehicle and I will let you guys figure that out. There are three crates of LSAT's load them up in your vehicles. The fourth vehicle gets the extra bags. I am in charge of this OP while I am around. Marc is in charge while I'm gone. Any questions?"

Nobody raised any questions and I opened up to them. "Men this is the most important assignment I have ever given you. If you haven't seen the video it will be available on the plane. They are being paid a million dollars each to complete their mission, and these are all the women in my life, even if some of them drive me crazy, I would die a thousand times over to protect them. I am asking each of you to protect them like they are your own family. Dismissed."

After the meeting, I collected the extra piles of shorts and tanks and dumped them, next to the boxes slated to go, in my office. I followed Tank into his office and gave him Steph's remaining skip and the file I had picked up from Connie.

"Neither of these are a priority, but it would be good if you can take care of them in the next week."

"Copy that."

I finished my morning as I called the Miami office to give them the hotel name and registration and let them know we should be there by 14:30.

Now I had to go take care of my Babe. I went to Mc Donald's and got her The Cure. Then I gently woke her up while waving a French fry in front of her face. She cracked an eye, sniffed the air and opened her mouth begging for it like a little blue bird. I stuck the French fry in, watched her chew it up and open her mouth again. I repeated the process several times smiling bigger as she slowly became more responsive. Then I lifted her hand up and stuck the coke into it.

She sighed, propped herself up on her elbows and took a big sip. Then she opened her red eyes and I held the French fries out to her. She selected several and shoved them in her mouth followed by a longer swig of coke. Finally, she sat all the way up and gave me a weak half smile. I gave her my full 200-watt smile, as she calls it, and placed the container of French fries into her lap.

"Babe, it is 8:30. You have half an hour to shower and get ready to go. We leave at 9:00 sharp. I laid out your clothes for you, your toiletry bag and blow dryer are all right here. I have to go see Hector about our electronics. Can you get up now?" She nodded to me as she took another big sip. I kissed her on the top of her head and daydreamed about waking up next to her every day. No one makes me smile like she can. No one has ever brought me such joy as watching her. No one has ever chased my demons away and brought peace to my soul like she does.

Why did it take me so long to open my life up to her? I pondered that question, knowing all of the logical excuses I have used, wondering at all of the times I have sought her out for that bit of sunshine that she brings me. My mood lifted at the thought of seeing her every morning and having dinner with her every night. Of doing the mundane things couples did every day. Holding her hand, kissing her whenever I wanted. Showering with her. Making love to her. I had to stop this line of thought as I was getting hard and that wasn't productive right now. I carried my bags down and loaded them in the Cayenne.

I went up to Hector's office realizing I never texted him and canceled last night's meeting, that he probably went looking for me and found that Tank and I had left. _"_ _Los tipos malos aparecieron anoche y tuve que lidiar con ellos._ _"_ ("Bad guys showed up last night and I had to deal with them.")

" _No hay problema, jefe. Haces lo que tienes que hacer. Siempre estaré aquí cuando haya terminado._ _"_ ("No problem boss. You do what you got to do. I will always be here when you are done.")

" _Gracias. Muéstrame estas máquinas y explícame lo que puedo hacer con ellas._ _"_ ("Thank you. Show me these machines and explain what I can do with them.")

" _Esta es la emisora de telefonía celular. Si hay una torre de teléfono celular con-en_ _quince_ _millas que están en el negocio. Si no lo hay, tiene su propio sistema de células cerradas. Todos en ese sistema pueden ponerse en contacto unos con otros, pero no con el mundo exterior. Como cuando estás en el barco o en la isla. Todos los teléfonos celulares están conectados a este sistema, que automáticamente tratará de conectarse con él en primer lugar, pero si no está disponible sus teléfonos recorrerá y agarrar de cualquier sistema disponible._ _"_ ("This is the cell phone broadcaster. If there is a cell phone tower with-in fifteen miles you are in business. If there is not, you have your own closed cell system. Everyone on that system can contact each other, but not the outside world. Like when you are on the ship or the island. All of the cell phones are wired into this system, they will automatically try to connect with it first, but if it is not available their phones will roam and grab hold of any system available.")

" _En realidad, hay una torre de teléfono celular en la isla, pero es AT &T que hacer una diferencia?_ _"_ ("Actually, there is a cell phone tower on the island, but it is AT&T will that make a difference?")

" _No hace ninguna diferencia para esta máquina, y como prima usted no conseguirá ninguna carga de itinerancia. Ahora estos son el sistema de Internet. Éste,"_ Señaló un cuadrado de ocho pulgadas, por una caja negra de ocho pulgadas con dos cables y un tapón que salía de la parte posterior de él, y un montón de luces y un interruptor en la parte delantera de la misma, _"Toma su señal de teléfono celular y la convierte en Wi-Fi para las computadoras y la envía a ésta."_ Él puso su mano en la otra caja negra. ("Makes no difference for this machine, and as a bonus you won't get any roaming charges. Now these are the internet system. This one," he pointed at a square eight inch, by eight inch black box with two wires and a plug coming out of the back of it, and a slew of lights and one switch on the front of it, "takes your cell phone signal and turns it into Wi-Fi for the computers and sends it to this one." He put his hand on the other black box.)

" _Éste",_ tenía la mano en una caja negra rectangular más alta, que de nuevo tenía dos cables y un enchufe que salía por la espalda, con sólo cinco luces y el interruptor en la parte posterior, _"transmite la señal Wi-Fi a Los ordenadores y recibe la señal de retorno, y luego la transmite de vuelta a la primera caja,"_ señaló la caja negra cuadrada más corta, _"donde se cambia a una señal de teléfono celular y se envía a la emisora de teléfonos celulares."_ ("This one," he had his hand on a taller rectangular black box, that again had two wires and a power plug coming out the back, with only five lights and the switch on the back, "broadcasts the Wi-Fi signal to the computers and receives the returning signal. Then transmits it back to the first box," he pointed to the shorter square black box, "where it is changed to a cell phone signal and sent to the cell phone broadcaster.")

" _¿Cómo los conecto y cómo se firman?_ _"_ (How do I hook them up and how do people sign on?)

" _La conexión es simple, primero se configura la emisora de telefonía celular. A continuación, simplemente conecte los dos y ejecutar los cables negro y amarillo entre ellos como este. Entonces los enciende. Usted programa el sistema conectando su computadora con este cable gris y va a . Allí usted puede cambiar el nombre y la contraseña y la señal del teléfono celular que está utilizando, como si usted quisiera que se conectara directamente con la torre de AT & T. Ya lo he programado para trabajar con la emisora de telefonía celular, por lo que si cambia de señal tiene que programarla. El nombre del sistema es Manoso y la contraseña es family1234. Hice fácil para que todos recordaran._ _"_ (Hook up is simple, first you set up the cell phone broadcaster. Then you simply plug them both in and run the black and yellow wires between them like this. Then you turn them on. You program the system by plugging your computer in with this gray wire and going to . There you can change the name and password and the cell phone signal it is using, like if you want it to connect directly with the AT&T tower. I have already programed it to work with the cell phone broadcaster, so if you change signals you have to program it. The name of the system is Manoso and the password is family1234. I made it easy for everyone to remember.)

" _Gracias, Héctor. Estoy agradecido de estar en sus manos capaces. Esta mañana estoy corriendo un poco tarde puede cargar estos en el Cayenne para mí?_ _"_ (Thank you, Hector. I am grateful to be in your capable hands. This morning I am running a little late can you load these into the Cayenne for me?)

" _Por supuesto, jefe. Se hace._ _"_ (Of course, boss. It is done.)

I went to the boardroom to see if they had any new information for me. I made sure they had received all the names from last night and for them to pass the names onto Sybo.

I went back up to my office and I found two boxes, one with a pile of ID's and birth certificates attached to credit cards and five to passports, with a note that said they were complete. He was up late getting them all done, but to wake him if I needed anything more. The second box had cell phones lined up, in two lines and two lines of cases, still in their packaging, filling in the box. I stacked the extra outfits on top of the boxes, carried both boxes down and loaded them up. I packed the extra outfits in my bag so they could be transported easier. Then I headed upstairs to collect Stephanie.

When I entered the apartment, I surveyed the situation. Her black Pilates pants and blue shirt were gone off the bed and I could hear the blow dryer. I knocked on the door. "Babe, time to go." I told her. No answer. I cracked opened the door and she stepped back. "Babe, time to go." And I smiled at her. I liked her in my bathroom. I was going to make room for her make-up and hair things. Well I would have Ella make room for her thing in my bathroom and her clothes in my closet.

She smiled back at me. "I can't get my hair to behave. It's gone wild and I'm supposed to meet your parents." I could tell she was nervous about the prospect.

"Babe you look great. If you need to, put it in a ponytail. It's going to be humid where we are going so you probably need to do that anyway. Let me get all your stuff, repacked." I told her as I got her toiletries bag and started putting everything back in it. "We're leaving in five." I told her and walked out of the bathroom to pack the bag of toiletries and the blow dryer. She finally came out, wearing flat brown sandals, her shoulder length hair pulled back in a barely contained ponytail.

I gathered her and her suitcases and got them loaded into the Cayenne. I noted my men had already left. It was 8:58 and everything was going perfectly. I had everything accomplished and the plan was in motion. We were on the highway, flying through the bright morning haze, under a partially cloudy sky, when I heard a low grumbling that wouldn't quit.

"Babe, something wrong?"

"I'm awake now and my stomach is empty so it is protesting."

"You had French fries for breakfast not an hour ago."

"That was brain food. This is stomach food." She explained.

I pulled over at the next exit and my stomach rolled as she got a fried chicken breakfast biscuit, fried breakfast potatoes, and a large coke. I was going to have to work on her diet. I wouldn't try to change all of it, like donuts. That would be as impossible, as futile, as trying to hold the rain up in the clouds. But a few more vegetables and fried stuff only once a day. Little changes. She liked Ella's cooking, I would just have her eat it more. Simple solution.

To be continued…

A/N Everything is ready to go. Are you excited to go on this vacation with the Manoso's. Will his family drive him crazy before this is all over? Do you think he can get Stephanie to change her eating habits? Or is that like trying to change the direction of the wind? Hopeless and futile? Side note I couldn't find a good time to work Joe or Stephanie's family in the story so the phone calls will have to do.


	9. Chapter 9 Ready to Leave

Chapter 9 Ready to Leave

Thursday April 14

 _I pulled over at the next exit and my stomach rolled as she got a fried chicken breakfast biscuit, fried breakfast potatoes, and a large coke. I was going to have to work on her diet. I wouldn't try to change all of it, like donuts. That would be as impossible, as futile, as trying to hold the rain up in the clouds. But a few more vegetables and fried stuff only once a day. Little changes. She liked Ella's cooking, I would just have her eat it more. Simple solution._

Her phone rang and she answered on the first ring. "Hello."

"No, I'm doing fine this morning, still purple and blue. How are you? How is your arm?" A pause.

"Two weeks? You have to miss work for two weeks, but it is only your left arm not even your writing or gun hand!" She exclaimed in disbelief and then listened.

"That's too bad. Yeah I wish I could come over but these guys are still out there and so I have kinda agreed to go out of town till they are caught." She said.

"I'm kinda with him right now." Her voice quieter.

"Yes, well nothing happened. He was chasing bad guys when I went to bed and gone when I woke up so as far as I know he slept on the couch and I slept alone." She explained.

"I'm not going away with him I am going away with his family." She said defensively. "No, I don't know where we are going. It's a secret, nobody knows till we get there." A longer pause.

"Maybe, we haven't discussed it but you shouldn't worry about it, Joe, I'm with you. Nothing is going to change that. Besides, nothing is going to happen with his parents and Julie and all of his family around." She told him.

"We're just leaving to give the police and RangeMan time to find these guys. Then we'll be back, it probably won't even be two weeks. I'll probably be back before you have to go back to work." She sounded wistful.

"Yes, I promise." A short pause.

"I love you too. Just be glad that I am safe and not out doing my crazy job. I'll call you every night." She said.

"Ok, talk to you later." She wouldn't be talking to him later and she wouldn't be calling him every night. It's not that I want to make her break her promises to him but I need her off the grid and it will be easier to sway her if she isn't talking to him every day.

I wasn't worried about Stephanie meeting my family because she is always polite. But my brother and sisters can be less than accepting and there is all this stress on the family. I pulled up outside my parent's house and was glad that all my men were there waiting in their vehicles. I texted everyone to let them know that I was going inside for a few minutes and then I would call them all to join me.

I got out and opened up Stephanie's door and led her up to the porch. "Babe, don't worry about my parents they are going to love you. So, will some of my sisters. Some of my sisters are stuck up and I never know how they are going to react and my brother will be his usual pain. So just take my family in stride." I opened the door and let her in.

Chaos reigned worse than yesterday as parents were trying to calm crying kids, luggage was piled everywhere and the house was full of strung-out adults and children milling about unsure of what to do while they waited for this show to start. Oshanna and Julio were in the living room, Julio looking relaxed in jeans, a baby blue polo shirt and tennis shoes, while Oshanna was wearing a frilly tight button up white shirt with tan shorts and sparkling two-inch platform sandals, her blond hair pinned back from her face. She was complaining about the situation. I focused on my goal: to get everyone to safety and have as much fun as possible.

"Mama, Leyla, Isabella, can we get all the kids in the family room so the parents can have a few minutes for talking?" Mama was wearing jeans and a red button up short sleeve shirt and tennis shoes, her shoulder length, straight brown hair loose.

"Working on it, Carlos. Mikie's game broke and he is very upset about it." Leyla told me. Mikie was also wearing jean shorts and a red shirt with a monster truck on it with tennis shoes.

"We'll see about getting him another one. The plane can wait five minutes to put a smile on his face." I told her.

"Uncle Carlos will get you a new game before we get on the plane. Now go with your brother and play in the family room." She was squatted down in her jeans shorts, gray t-shirt that had a sunrise and some saying that ended with the word beautiful in large black letters, and gray sandals, her long brown hair in a ponytail, talking to him.

"Can't you put a movie or something on for them?" I asked.

"They are going to be plugged in enough on the plane, they need to play outside or with toys for a while before we leave." Isabella, wearing a pink tank top with white shorts and white crisscrossed sandals, her cropped brown hair in its normal loose face framing bob, explained. All the women it seemed were dressing for the Florida sun.

"Ok, as soon as you get the kids settled I need all the adults in the living room." I told everyone. I led Stephanie over to my mama.

"Stephanie this is my mama, Maria. Mama this is Stephanie Plum."

"Nice to finally meet you. So glad you could come with the family on this spontaneous vacation. Come," she said, taking Stephanie by the arm. "let me introduce you to the family."

"Mama, I am going to introduce Stephanie and my men to the family all at once. As soon as we can get everyone into the living room." Once my family was mostly assembled I let my men in and they made two lines in a semi-circle facing my family, my mother and father on the loveseat, Oshanna, Julio, Angelia and Grandma Rosa on the couch, Isabella in the chair with her husband Diego perched on the arm, and Leyla and Richard standing beside the chair. I stood with Stephanie in front of the TV.

"Thank you everyone for being prompt." I started.

"It's not like we had a choice. Your men in black loaded the car and dragged us out to it and threw us in so we could get here in time. I don't see why we had to be here so early anyway. It's a private flight it won't leave without us." Angelia whined crossing her arms. She was wearing a matching peach shorts and shirt striped outfit with peach three-inch cork wedges. Her red hair was done all up and she was the only one with full make-up on.

I ignored her and continued. "We have a lot to get through. Let's start with introductions and assignments. First of all, this is Stephanie Plum, she is coming on our little adventure. Julie and her family, and Abuela Sanja will be joining us in Miami tonight. Everyone, let me introduce my men," who were all wearing the standard RangeMan black, "and make assignments. The men I assign to you ladies today will be your permanent shadows as long as you are awake outside of your hotel room and cabana. When I call your name please raise your hand."

"Marc – Stephanie Plum, Erik – my mother Maria, Hal – Leyla, Woody – Angelia, Cal – Isabella, Manuel – Grandma Rosa. Eddie is assigned to Rachel, Junior to Julie, Vince to Grandma Sanja. Now, these are the rest of my men. Bobby Brown," I waved my hand to the handsome black man, "is our medic. If you have any problems from needing a band-aid to a stomach issue or something worse, please see him immediately. If he can't resolve the problem he will make arrangements for treatment. The rest of the day crew are Ram, Zero, and Zip. Our night crew is Chet, Chester, Gino, Mario, Ramon and Ryan. Now let me introduce my family."

I walked around the room putting a hand on the shoulder or pointing to the person I was talking about. "This stunning beauty is my dear mama Maria Manoso. This is my Papa, Javier Manoso." He was wearing jeans and a white t-shirt with a colorful display of tropical flowers, a parrot, and Margaritaville in large blue letters underneath. "This is my wonderful Grandma Rosa." She was wearing a dark maroon button up shirt and a long floral skirt. "She only speaks Spanish so if she doesn't respond to you that is why." I translated what I said for her and got a smile out of her.

"This is Leyla Gonzales my brilliant oldest sister, who works for my father. She is married to Richard." He was wearing jeans and a Point Pleasant t-shirt with a picture of the beach and waves on it. "They have four kids; Becky age 12, Maggie age 10, Ricky age 7, Mikie age 5. This is my next oldest sister Angelia White. Her husband is Jordan. He is a doctor and could not come on our little trip, they have two kids: Shanna age 5, Ricky age 3. This is my younger brother Julio Manoso. He is tagging along and supposed to be helping, so ask him for anything you need help with. This is my next youngest sister Isabella Diaz, she is a nurse, she is married to Diego," who was wearing blue Docker shorts and a stripped blue and green shirt, "and they have three kids; Chris age 8, Shylia age 6, Parker age 3. This is my youngest sister Oshanna Manoso, she is a fashion designer in New York and is missing showing some of her new outfits to come on this adventure. Men you are dismissed to prepare the luggage and vehicles."

"Does anyone have any questions?"

"Yeah, you didn't assign anyone to me." Oshanna pouted.

"I did, I was just saving the best for last. Oshanna I have personally asked Lester to be your bodyguard." She was squealing as soon as I said Lester and I knew this was going to be her reaction so I wanted to keep my men from knowing how much she liked Lester. "Now Oshanna, I know he is your cousin, but he is still your bodyguard. You have to promise to listen to him and do what he says."

"Of course, I will do anything he says." She gushed at me.

Stephanie looked urgently at me. "How am I supposed to remember all these names? There are so many with just your parents and siblings, not including all of their children."

"Babe. I have a digital family album that has everyone's name, relation, and picture. I will email you a copy. You can access your email on your phone."

She smiled brightly at me, and I pulled out my phone and with a few taps, sent it to her.

"Now if everyone will wait here for a minute I have to get stuff from the car." I came back a few minutes later with the fake ID's, credit cards and cell phones.

"Everything I do from here on out is for your protection. To get back from the island everyone needs a passport. Those who already have them brought their passports, and birth certificates for the kids, right?" I got a few head nods. Mama, Papa, Abuela Rosa, here are your passports. Leyla, Richard here are yours. They will get you back in the country with no problem."

"I'm still worried about using them." Leyla murmured.

"Leyla there is nothing to be worried about. You are not a suspicious person. You are returning from an island that is not suspicious, with a family group that is not suspicious. They are looking for people who are threats to the country, not people coming with their extended family back from a tropical vacation. You're with a group of forty-seven other people they are just going to wave you through."

"Now is going to be the hard part for some of you. I told you that not counting your passports to get back in the country you can't use your IDs or debit and credit cards. So, keep your IDs on you but hidden, I am going to collect all debit and credit cards and issue you IDs and credit cards to use while we are gone."

I took all the IDs out of the box and made a pile of them on the coffee table. Immediately Oshanna leaned forward and started going through them. I picked them back up and put them back in the box. "Mom and Dad, you first, I need your debit cards and any credit cards," I took the cards they gave me and wrapped them together with a rubber band. "and here are your temporary ID's for this trip and a credit card for each of you that has a two-thousand-dollar limit."

"Next Leyla and Richard, let me get your cards from you," I took them and wrapped them in a rubber band. "You each a have a credit limit of twenty-five hundred. If for some reason, you need more let me know. Here are birth certificates for each of your kids just in case you need them for some reason."

"Angelia, let me get your cards from you." She just stood there glaring at me.

"I don't understand why I have to give you my cards." She exclaimed.

"You can't use them under any circumstances while we are gone. I am giving you a card you can use that has a two-thousand-dollar limit on it. That is free money for you to use so you won't need any cards."

"But I don't understand why I have to give you mine." She questioned.

"To remove all temptation. If you don't have them you can't use them."

"What about emergencies?" She qualified.

"That is what this card I am giving you is for. I am paying for all of the traveling costs, what emergency are you going to have that you need more than two-thousand dollars for?" I knew that every card already had a five-thousand-dollar limit, but if I told everyone that, several of my siblings would take it as a challenge and spend it before we ever got to the island.

"I don't know, that is why it is called an emergency." She said sarcastically.

"Let me know and I will cover it. Whatever emergency you have I will cover it." I held out my hand to take her cards. I wrapped them in a rubber band, she had eight of them, and handed her the new ID and card. I was smirking to myself, then laughing hysterically, practically rolling on my mental floor because I looked at her ID and Bones had given her an impossible Chinese name to pronounce. I hope he had done the same for Oshanna. I moved on.

"Julio, cards." I held out my hand and took his from him and handed him and ID and credit card. "Your card has a thousand-dollar limit."

"Why do I only get one thousand dollars? Everyone else got two thousand or more."

"Everyone else has kids going on the trip."

"But what if I need to buy stuff for my nieces and nephews?" Julio insisted.

"If you are having a problem let me know and we can handle it." I told him and moved on.

"Isabella and Diego, cards please." I held out my hand and received several cards from each of them and I handed them their new cards. "Your cards have two-thousand dollar limits each."

"Oh, my name is Jasmine." Isabella said "and you are David. Nice, I always wanted to be with a David." She winked flirtatiously at her husband.

"Abuela Rosa, aquí tienes tu nueva identificación y tarjeta de crédito por dos mil dólares. Si necesitas más, dímelo." I told her. ("Grandma Rosa, here is your new ID and credit card for two-thousand dollars. If you need more you let me know.")

"Carlos, tengo todo lo que necesito y mis bisnietos están todos mimados. Estoy feliz de estar llegando a pasar tiempo con todos." she smiled at me. (Carlos, I have all I need and my great grandchildren are all spoiled. I am just happy to come and spend time with everyone.)

"Oshanna, I need your cards please." I held out my hand to her. She reluctantly handed me three cards and I gave her the new ID and credit card. "Your card has a thousand-dollar limit on it."

She pouted at me. "Xiaolan my name is Cassandra Xiaolan? How do you even pronounce that? And who in their right mind would think I am Chinese?"

"It is actually very pretty, it is pronounced 'shau-o-lan'. Practice it and learn how to spell it." I turned to Stephanie.

"Stephanie," I held out my hand to her and I think on some level she didn't include herself in this little exercise. She opened up her wallet and handed me several cards. I took them all, banded them together and handed her the new ID and credit card. I stepped close to her and whispered you have a twenty-five-hundred-dollar limit. Let me know if you need more." I slipped my own ID's into my wallet, not wanting Stephanie to see that we are married.

"I hope you can all tolerate your new names. Practice signing them a few times so you know them and can spell them. You only need to use them for purchases. You are not changing your name." At this point, everyone was looking at their and each other's IDs, talking to each other and no longer listening to me.

Marc came into the room, nodded to me and stood just inside the doorway. He was a handsome guy dark brown almost black hair and light blue eyes, six-foot-two and 220 pounds of tall lean muscle. By the average guy's measure, he was bulked up but compared to the other RangeMan guys like Hal and Cal he was sinewy and strong like tightly wound steel bands. I walked over to him. "Report."

"We found five trackers. Three in suitcases, two in shoes."

"Whose?"

"Leyla's kid's suitcase. Angelia's suitcase and sandals. Stephanie's suitcase and tennis shoes." I held out my hand and he dumped five devices into it. "Load it all up. Prepare to wand everyone. I still have to distribute the phones then we will be ready to go." I set the trackers on the coffee table and continued preparing everyone to be off-line.

I stood waiting for a few moments to let my family settle down. Knowing this was going to be even harder than giving up their cards. I got out the box of phones.

"I need your attention. We are not ready to go yet. Now everything I am doing right now is preparing you to be off line electronically. If you use the cards in your name you could be tracked. If you use your phone even one time you can be tracked. So, I have new phones for everyone. They are the brand-new Samsung S8 Galaxy Edge. They take excellent pictures and have a twenty-gig memory. Plus, these are the new ones that are waterproof so you don't have to worry about getting them wet. You can take underwater pictures with them." Excited chatter went up through my family.

"When this is all over you can keep these phones, just transfer your old number to them. But for today I need your current phone in exchange for the new ones. Turn your current phones off and get ready to hand them to me." I walked around, starting with my parents, and working my way through my siblings, collecting phones and issuing new ones. Each phone had a sticky on it with the name of the recipient and the phone number for the new phone.

"These phones," I tried to tell them but there was too much talking. I whistled to get everyone's attention. "The phones are only to be used to contact people going on this trip. No one outside this house. No one back home. You will find that each phone has an address book with everybody's phone numbers already programed in including all my men. You are to contact no one that is not on that list. Does everyone understand? Oshanna do you understand?" She looked at me with a well duh look.

"Angelia, you understand? No husband, no friends." She nodded to me. This was going a lot easier than I had expected. No one was pitching a fit, most of them were happily exploring their new phones. "Everyone just got exactly the same phone. I have a bunch of cases so everyone can tell theirs apart." I unloaded the cases on to the coffee table. Oshanna and Angelia immediately dove in picking through the pile.

I turned to Stephanie. "Here is your phone. I need your old one."

"You didn't tell me I can't call Joe while we are gone. You heard me tell him I would call him every night."

"It's the way it is for everyone. Text him from your old phone and tell him you will be out of touch while you are gone."

"I can't text him. I have to call him, he's not going to believe me otherwise." I handed her the old phone back and she went over to the corner of the room.

I walked over to my dad, "Here is the satellite phone for you. You can use it as much as you want, even on the ship." I waited for everyone to pick out a case and start putting them on their phones. Stephanie came back over to me and handed me her phone.

"What color case do you want Babe?"

"Something multi-color. I don't know, I will look through them in a minute." She turned to me, "He is mad. He thinks this is a trick to steal me away. He doesn't understand why I can't call him."

"Babe, if they want to find out where you are the first thing they are going to do is listen to your parents and his phones for you to call and then trace the call. Even if you don't tell him where you are they can find the cell tower the call is originating from and then they will have our location. It would take them less than a day for them to find us and everything we are doing to keep everyone safe will be worthless."

"Oh, I just thought you were trying to keep me away from him." Well I am but that is not the main purpose.

"Not at all. No one can call home not Angelia, not Oshanna. It's for your protection everyone is going completely off-line. Besides I know your routine. You two only stay together for a few months before you break up and I get my chance. You two have never lasted and I have waited this long, I am a patient man I can wait a little while longer." She gave me a shocked stare as realization dawned on her that I am serious about a relationship and I will bide my time.

"But we always get back together. Eventually we are supposed to get married." She explained.

I grabbed her arm and dragged her over to the corner. I was going to let her have the truth and my family didn't need to hear this. "If you two really wanted a long term permanent relationship you would have figured it out by now and at least be living together. If he really wanted you long term there would be a ring on your finger. You need to realize that while you may have a comfortable relationship when it is working, neither of you are dying for the other, burning up with the need to be together forever. In fact, when you get too close, you sabotage the relationship because neither of you really want to be together long term. He is looking for a homemaker who is going to stay home with the kids and have a home cooked meal on the table every night at 6:00. You are very independent and need to live your life on your own terms and have a man that supports you, not one that has constant acid reflux, or waves his arms and yells at you. I know you have made a commitment to him and I'm willing to wait, but long term the two of you would never be happy together. You will never be a happy stay at home mommy and he is not flexible and relaxed enough to take you as you are."

"And you are?" She questioned me.

"Yes I am. I love you how you are. I never expect you to change for me, or cook for me, or do my laundry."

"Well you have Ella for all that." She interrupted.

"Yes, right now I have Ella, but I didn't used to have Ella and I don't always expect to have Ella. But I can take care of myself. I'm not looking for a woman to do it for me and I'm not looking for a woman to produce 2.5 kids and run the household. My life is infinitely more complex and what I am looking for was something I never expected to find and is one of a kind. You do things in my life that no one on this planet can do. You make me smile. You make me laugh. When I hold you, I find a measure of peace that I never thought I would have in my life. You make me whole in a way that can't be measured. Babe you are like my own personal sun bringing light and life back to my soul. I know that sounds deep but there it is. It is why you are so precious to me and why I would do anything, including sacrifice myself, for you. There is nothing I would not give in my life for you. But I have held you at arms-length for a long time, not getting too close because I didn't want to put you in danger and I believed that I wasn't worthy of having someone as special as you. The other night changed all of that.

"First, I realized that I have already gotten too close. That you are in danger and will never be out of danger again. That is the price you have to pay to be with me. I don't know if you can live with that. Second, I realized that _I_ can protect you better than anyone else out there. That you can be safer staying _with_ me than if I let you go. Third I promised myself if I got you back I would always be there for you and always take care of you. Forever. Till the end of time. There is no expiration date on my feelings for you. I understand that you are currently with him and that this is all unexpected and you are not ready for it. So take your time. I am patient and I am a permanent fixture in your life. I am never going away again. I am never going to leave you again. I will protect you always. Your heart as well as your body. So, do what you have to do, I will still be here when you are done."

She looked astonished, like she didn't believe all she was hearing. Like it didn't add up in her head. I took her in my arms and just held her close to me. "I love you, I will always love you. Nothing that you can ever do will make me stop loving you, wanting you, needing you." I whispered.

She stiffened, put her hand up against my chest and pushed me away. Then she just walked away, phone in hand and went to go look at the phone cases. I knew I had said too much, too fast. She wasn't ready but I wanted, no I needed, her to know how I really felt and what she means to me.

I walked back over to my family and just stood there for several long minutes watching them pick out cases and get ready to go.

Surprisingly Stephanie stood up and came over to me. She gave me a look like she was proud of me. "You are being very generous with your family. New credit cards, New phones."

"Got to keep the masses happy or I would have a revolution before we got this whole thing off the ground." I told her unsure of this new attitude of hers.

Marc interrupted, coming to tell me that all the luggage was being loaded and the men were outside lining up waiting for their targets to leave. I waited to get everyone's attention again as I could hear my men hauling all the luggage back out to the SUV's.

I pulled myself together and walked over to Leyla with two phones. "Leyla and Richard, Julie has her own phone. I wasn't sure if Becky or Maggie did and since Becky was the same age I got a phone for her and Maggie; but it is up to you if you think they are old enough to have their own phones, can use them responsibly, and keep track of them."

"Neither of them have phones yet, but if they see Julie with one they will be upset. So yeah, we will take both phones for them. If nothing else, they are both big into taking pictures and will want to use them for that." Leyla said holding out her hand. I handed her the phones and gave her a smile.

"Hard to believe they are growing up so fast. It seems like only yesterday they were in diapers and then starting school."

"I am enjoying this new age. Becky just completed her babysitting course and now I can leave them home alone with her occasionally and have a date night. She has been bugging us for a phone so if you don't mind after this is all over we would like to keep it for her."

"Of course, that's what I got them for." I turned back to the group.

"Ok we are now ready to go." I told everyone. "All of your phones and cards will be locked in the safe at RangeMan so they will be protected until your return." I handed the box to Jacob with specific instructions that these were not to leave his sight till he was handing them over to Tank.

"I need everyone's attention." I raised my voice to be heard over the crowd. "Your luggage was scanned and five bugs were found in bags and shoes." I told everyone. "As we get loaded up every person will be scanned for trackers."

"I thought because we were on a private jet we didn't need to go through scanning." Isabella said.

"Security scans at the airport look for weapons. We are looking for trackers." I put the five trackers back on the coffee table. "These have already been found in the luggage and we need to scan everyone to make sure there are no trackers on everyone. Isabella, Leyla, Angelia if you will get your kids lined up my men will start scanning everyone as they head out to the SUV's. Everyone ride in the SUV you got here in." Eddie and Junior were standing in the front hall, holding Pro-G10 scanners. Little black devices slightly bigger and three times as thick as a cell phone, with light readings on the front that go from green to red and beep loudly when a bug is scanned.

"Mama, Papa, Abuela if you will please go first, you will ride with Erik and Manuel" "Abuela, si quieres ir primero, viajarás con Erik y Manuel." I asked them holding my arm out. They lined up, were scanned, and walked out to their SUV. "Julio and Oshanna, you two are next. Julio, ride to the airport with Oshanna and Lester." Angelia came around the corner with Shanna and Kendrick in each hand.

"Leyla," I called her over. "What store carries the toy that was broken?"

"Toys R Us." She told me. I Google mapped it. There was one only a little out of the way to the airport.

"I am going to have your SUV follow me and we will go there first and meet everyone on the tarmac." I sent a quick text to all my men. _'Head to the tarmac and start getting everyone and all luggage loaded up. Layla's SUV will follow mine. I am taking Layla and Mikie to get a new toy and we will join you.'_

Becky and Maggy were on their knees at the coffee table going through the rest of the phone cases, both complaining.

"Uncle Carlos, all of these are ugly." Maggie said.

"Yeah, I don't like any of them." Becky said.

I walked over to the two and looked at the eight cases that were left. "This one has a cute doggy on it and that one has a cool pink, red and black swirly design. Surely there is one there that you can like a little."

"I want zebra stripes." Maggie declared.

"I want Justin Beber." Becky said.

"Look, girls, when we get back we can get the perfect cases for you, but I just handed everyone the same model of phone, these cases are just so you can differentiate your phone from everyone else's and so it can protect the phones while we are gone."

"Everyone got this phone, even Ricky and Mikie?" Becky asked.

"No, all the adults. You two and Julie are the only kids that get to have a phone. Now you both have to take care of the phones and you can only contact people on this trip with them. There are phone numbers preprogramed into your phone for the whole family and all the men, you can call or text any of them. You can't contact any of your friends or anyone back home once we leave. Do you understand?" They both nodded at me and started going through the cases again.

Five minutes later there was a bottleneck at the front door, as multiple kids' shoes scanned positive for trackers. I herded all positive scans back into the family room and started searching the shoes. Tennis shoes are easy to plant, because you just cut the rubber and slide the tracker in and the pressure from the rubber holds it in place.

Everyone had to get rescanned and Maggie was still broadcasting from her other tennis shoe so everyone but Leyla and Maggie headed out the door to get loaded up. "Babe," I noticed that she had a light blue case with dandelions blowing away on it. "Go ahead out to the Cayenne, stay with Marc. He is going to ride with us."

"Hey, why did you assign me someone else for my protection detail. I thought you would take me." Her voice got a little wobbly but aloof as she talked and she looked down not meeting my eyes. I lifted her head to look at me.

"Babe I AM your protection detail, but anytime I can't be there, like right now, I need to have someone as my backup. Marc's a former Ranger too, he's the best Babe, or I wouldn't have assigned him to you." She nodded and headed out the door. I helped find the last tracker and everyone got loaded up.

Finally, it was 10:43 and we were heading out into the partly cloudy smog that hung over the city. I would feel relieved when everyone was on that plane, when everyone was on the island. I went in to Toys R Us with Leyla and Mikie. We found the handheld game that got broken and got him a replacement and another one that he saw for him to share with his brother.

"Leyla, it's ok to get him that one too. What else can we get for the kids going on this trip?" I was ready to buy out the store to have a peaceful plane trip with all the kids actively engaged.

"Honestly Carlos, I think all the kids have enough electronics. If we need anything it is beach toys." She explained. We headed over to an outdoor toy aisle. There were twelve kids coming, ages three to twelve. I bought four big pre-made beach sets that had multiple kinds of buckets, scoops, shovels, rakes, and other sand toys. Then I filled the basket with three beach balls, two little nerf footballs, and a large game system that had everything for volley ball and badminton, two soccer balls, several Frisbees and four large carry all mesh bags, in different colors with over the shoulder straps that Leyla said was needed to carry all the toys to and from the beach.

We checked out and loaded all the toys onto the folded down backseat of the Cayenne and got back on the road. Fifteen minutes later we were pulling through the guard gate and heading towards the tarmac. Mass numbers of men, lined up like ants, carted piles of luggage to the plane.

"That? We're flying in that?" Stephanie sounded amazed and scared all at the same time.

"Yes, Babe. It is a Concorde. A special jet that goes twice as fast as a regular airliner."

"It looks like the shuttle with low back wings. Where are the large side wings that are going to keep us airborn? Why are the engines coming out of the back of the wings? How does it fly and stay in the air?" She asked.

"Babe they have been flying them for over thirty years, they are perfectly safe." I told her.

"Thirty years and they are still flying? Isn't that too old to be flying?" I could see she was working herself up and if I didn't nip this in the bud I would be dragging her to get her on the plane.

"This one was recently refurbished. All new engines, hydraulics and electronics. It has been upgraded with Wi-Fi and USB ports at every seat. It is perfectly safe. It has hardly been used since it was refurbished and just flew in last night from its hanger in France."

"France, like across the ocean France." She repeated.

"Yes, like across the ocean. It is perfectly safe. You have to know I would never put my whole family, everyone I love, on a plane that wasn't completely safe."

"Ok." She said. I got out and opened her door and started to lead her to the plane. I knew that Marc and my men would make sure everything was loaded onto the plane. When we got to the stairs, she froze again. This model has stairs underneath it, coming down from its belly, behind it's front wheel, approximately where the wings began, so while it wasn't that far up, the stairs were small and steep.

"Come on Babe, do you want me to carry you up?" I teased, knowing that would spur her into motion.

She grabbed hold of the railing on one side and started up. Holding on for dear life she climbed to the top of the stairs and went inside. We were met with sheer bedlam, parents trying to assign seats and get their children to sit down. While the children didn't mind sitting beside someone else, none of the kids wanted to sit next to a sibling. Instead they all wanted to sit next to a window.

The inside was designed in grey with grey carpet with two red stripes going up each side of the isle and two first class grey seats on either side of it. Above the seats were the usual overhead signs to buckle up and air vents but when it was upgraded, small video screens were installed in front of each seat that can be lowered so a movie can be shown on them.

"Look, Isabella, Diego, Angelia, Richard there are 50 seats next to windows, certainly there are enough windows for the kids to each have one." I told them hoping to stop some of the arguing. "Just tell them that they might have to sit next to my men.

"Well Oshanna, Julio and I were going to sit in the same row so we could catch up." Angelia said.

"Look there are nine kids. Put Kendrick in the fifth row and all three of you can sit in that row with him. Isabella and Diego can sit between Shylia and Parker. Chris and Shanna can sit in the same row. Rebecca and Maggie can sit in the same row. Richard and Michael can sit in the same row and Leyla and Richard can sit with them. Or parents you can decide who should sit with what kids." I suddenly shut my mouth, realizing I was stepping on toes. I was making my decisions based on age, but the parents would decide based on who needed the most help and supervision. My parents stepped up and volunteered to sit with some of the kids.

I took Stephanie's hand and prepared to wait patiently, this is why they load families first on planes so they have a chance to get settled. "Babe, I didn't mark your suitcase as a carry on. Is there anything you are going to need in the next two hours from any of your bags?"

"I didn't bring my laptop but I have the new cell you gave me. Can I download some games onto it? I have started playing games on airplanes."

"Sure Babe, just start downloading them now. Once we are in the air you will have to use the inflight Wi-Fi." She pulled out her phone and started frantically pushing buttons on it calling up the PlayStore and selecting games to download.

Several minutes later, Leyla and Mikie came on board. I didn't know what was taking them so long until I saw she had three carry-on bags she had lugged up the stairs.

"Leyla, just help get the kids settled. My men can load the luggage."

"Well they were putting them all in the back and we need these inside the cabin." She explained. I climbed halfway down the stairs. I called to Hal, who was the nearest man to come over. I instructed him to load all carry-on sized luggage inside the plane. He pointed to a pile that was forming between two SUV's and said they were loading the back first and they would load these when they boarded the plane, and that it was a cool plane and he couldn't wait to see how fast it can go.

I smiled to myself, as usual my men had everything under control. Finally, most of the people on board were seated and I led Stephanie several rows back from my family and sat her next to the window. I know she never sleeps on a plane so I wanted to give her something to look at. She was still busy downloading games.

The flight attendants, Emile and Sabine, started coming around to see what everyone needed to get settled. They told Layla that they could play a movie, if she had one for the children. She had several and the children couldn't decide between The Incredibles, Big Hero 6, and Black Beauty. They were busy trying to get the children to decide on one when Sabine explained they could play up to five movies at once. That she had ear buds to give each kid and they could each watch their own movie.

My men were starting to board the plane with all of the carry-on luggage. As they entered the cabin, they held up the luggage and asked who's each was and then loaded it in the storage above them. Once Angelia got her kids' bags, she rummaged through them and pulled out a DVD. She stopped Emile and asked her to put it on for her kids. It was Fern Gulley and currently their favorite movie.

Eventually everyone was seated and Captain Mullbanks came back into the cabin to survey the situation. "All the cars are off the tarmac and when everyone is ready I will signal the tower that we are ready to leave. Then we get into the lineup of planes taking off. If you have never flown on a Concorde before you are in for a treat, because the Concorde takes off more like a rocket, launching upwards into the sky. Rather than the long slow ascent of a regular airliner. Don't worry, I have been flying Concords for over fifteen years and never had a problem with one yet."

The children and my men looked excited. The women, including Stephanie looked worried. "Don't worry Babe. I promise you this is safe. It is a little different, but it is safe." She nodded to me and turned back to her phone, where she was now installing some of the games she had downloaded including Solitaire, Bubble witch, , Bubble Shooter, Cookie Crush 3, FlowFree, Candy Crush Saga, Uno, Hangman, Tetrus, and Fruit Ninja.

I was pretty sure she was going to have to log onto the airplane Wi-Fi to play some of these but I would tell her about it once she started playing. The captain came over the speaker.

"Good Afternoon everyone. This is your Captain speaking. We are very glad to have you on board the Concorde A17. Today we are scheduled to fly to Miami. Weather seems rather gloomy here with cloudy skies and possible showers, but it is expected to be sunny and 93 degrees in Miami. This flight will take one hour and thirty-four minutes."  
The seat belt signs flashed on.  
"We have received clearance from the tower. Everyone must remain seated with their seatbelt fastened until we reach our cruising altitude of 60,000 feet and I will turn the seatbelt sign off. Parents please double check that all children are properly seat belted in, all electronics are properly stowed, the table in front of you is up and your chair is in its full upright and locked position. We will now taxi out to the runway. On board, we take safety very seriously and we would ask you to pay attention to our cabin crew who will carry out the safety demonstrations. Cabin crew prepare for safety demonstrations please."

There was no card in the back pocket of the seat in front of you. Instead the flight attendants went through the seat belt fastening, oxygen bag drop, where the two emergency exits were, the life vests in case of a water landing and where the boats were, how to tuck in your seat in case of an emergency landing, and to always listen to the pilot in case of emergency. Then they went through the cabin and made sure everyone had their seatbelts on and electronics stowed. Stephanie hastily stashed her phone into the pocket of the seat in front of her.

A few minutes later the pilot came back on. "We have received clearance from the tower for take-off, we are taxiing to our final runway. This plane has a very vertical take-off and once a route is established and we are over the ocean, we will climb to 60,000 feet where we can go supersonic and reach our top cruising speed of over 1300 mph. Your flight attendants have gum to help you equalize ear pressure, get some now before take-off."

Emile and Sabine quickly walked down the aisle passing out sticks of gum to everyone that wanted some. Stephanie got some and I debated it. Whether diving or flying I didn't usually have a problem with equalizing my ear pressure. I skipped it for now. They quickly took their seats in the back of the plane and signaled the pilot that everyone was secure. A few minutes later you could hear the engines ramping up and suddenly we were going down the runway for several long seconds until we just jumped vertically into the sky.

Some of the adults gasped, some of the boys squealed. We continued that vertical climb for about thirty seconds. Out Stephanie's window I could see the ground peeling away from us, buildings shrinking at an incredible rate. Several minutes later we were over water and it was as if the engines caught their second wind. They launched us forward at a steeper rate than before and it sounded like liftoff, we were blasting straight up into the sky.

It took almost ten more minutes before we leveled off and started flying straight. The captain came back on, "Congratulations you have just had your first ever supersonic take off. Now you can sit back and relax we have reached our cruising altitude and I am turning off the seatbelt sign. You are free to get up and move about the cabin. In a few minutes, Emile and Sabine will start passing out lunch."

To be continued…

A/N: Thank you! Thank you! Thank you all for your reviews! They are all loved and appreciated. I have three more chapters this week then it is going to go to weekly updates.

As always big THANK YOU to my beta Sassysaint who makes my story's more readable. You are AWESOME! THANK YOU! If you haven't read her stories they are worth your time and will give you something to read while waiting for the next chapter to post = )

Second Big THANK YOU to my sister, Jonelle. Who is giving my stories a thorough technical analysis (ie deep proof reading) and fixing all my commas, apostrophes, making great suggestions and fixing all my many other mistakes. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

Family album below again. In reality, today the Concordes are no longer operating, several of them are now in museums. But they were very nice luxurious planes that are the only supersonic commercial plane ever built. I could just see this as the type of plane Ranger would choose to have and fly his family on so I took some creative license and restored several. How are you liking the story so far? Please read and review.

Ranger's Family Album

Mother's Mother – Abuela Rosa, Father's Mother – Abuela Sanja Manoso

Mother – Maria Father – Javier

Siblings and family in age order

Leyla (35) & Richard Gonzales– Rebecca (Becky) 12, Margaret (Maggie) 10, Richard (Ricky) 7, Michael (Mikie) 5

Angelia (34) & Jordan White – Shanna 5 – Kendrick (Ricky) 3

Ricardo Carlos Manoso (32)– Ranger

Julio Manoso (30) Ex Allysa – Jacob 2

Isabella (27) & Diego Diaz – Chris 8, Shylia 6, Parker 3

Oshanna Manoso (22)

Rachel & Ron – Julie 12, Fredrico (Freddie) 9, Cassandra (Cassie)6

Trenton Merry Men Assignments (20 Men)

Abuela Sanja – Vince

Abuela Rosa – Manuel

Maria – Erik

Leyla – Hal

Angelia – Woody

Isabella – Cal

Oshanna – Lester

Rachel – Eddie

Julie – Junior

Stephanie – Ranger, Marc

Extra's – Bobby, Ram, Zero, Zip

Night's – Chet, Chester, Gino, Mario, Ryan, Ramon


	10. Chapter 10 Miami

Chapter 10 Miami

 _A few minutes later you could hear the engines ramping up and suddenly we were going down the runway for several long seconds until we just jumped vertically into the sky._

 _Some of the adults gasped, some of the boys squealed. We continued that vertical climb for about thirty seconds. Out Stephanie's window I could see the ground peeling away from us, buildings shrinking at an incredible rate. Then we were over water and then like the engines caught their second breath they launched us forward at a steeper rate than before and it sounded like liftoff, we were blasting straight up into the sky._

 _It took almost ten minutes before we leveled off and started flying straight. The captain came back on, "Congratulations you have just had your first ever supersonic take off. Now you can sit back and relax we have reached our cruising altitude and I am turning off the seatbelt sign. You are free to get up and move about the cabin. In a few minutes, Emile and Sabine will start passing out lunch."_

The landing in blue sky, white puffy clouded Miami was smoother than our take-off, the Concorde slowing way down and gliding in for a long distance before touching the ground. Some of the kids were upset they couldn't finish their movies and promises were made about watching it later, knowing all the kids have seen these movies a gazillion times. But like Saturday morning loony toons it never gets old.

The funny part was watching my men. There were several of them that had turned on one of the cartoons. These were movies that have come out in the past ten years but my men had never seen before. It was surprising to watch them get disappointed when the movies were turned off several minutes before we started the approach for landing. Hal, Cal, and Junior three of my biggest men looked like lost puppies that had their bowl of food taken away.

It was sunny and hot out as promised, the air crisp and clean compared to the Trenton smog. We loaded all forty-one people and endless bags of luggage into twelve black SUVs to transport everyone to the hotel. Beachside Suites of Miami was a ten story, slightly pink, sandy colored building. White trim and reddish-brown accents covered the front and side of the building that was located just south of Miami on the beach. Skylar had reserved all the suites on the top two floors for my family and men, even having extra trundle beds reserved for the families larger than four. We were so close to the beach you could smell, and practically taste, the salt in the air.

I checked us in, while my men and family stayed in the SUVs. I found out that Ron and Rachel, as well as Abuela Sanja, had already checked in and my Miami men reported they were out at the pool. I sent eight men upstairs to clear the rooms, and when I got the signal ushered my family in groups with their protection detail to the beige with dark red trimmed elevators. I passed out hotel keys to each adult, asking everyone to stay in their rooms until all the luggage was brought up and sorted.

There were ten sandy-pink doored rooms on each floor and I assigned rooms to each of my siblings, my parents, and put both my grandmothers together, with one room left over. I offered the last room to Leyla and Isabella for the oldest children, Becky, Maggie, Chris, and Julie if she wanted to, that could be left alone without supervision to sleep, so they wouldn't have to sleep on extra roll-in beds. Each room was a large suite with a living room area, furnished with a couch and love seat or two chairs done in tasteful gold, yellows and greens, with a dark walnut credenza topped by a 55-inch smart TV. This led to a bedroom with two queen sized beds and two dressers flanking the beds, with a night stand topped with a lamp between the beds and additional lamps on the dressers, finished with a balcony out a back-sliding glass door.

The bathroom with a two-sink area was off the bedroom with the white toilet and shower in a little room, tiled with a cute geometric yellow, black, pink and green pattern, off to the right. The large closet space held a safe, hangers for your clothes, and a place to put your suitcases once they were emptied. I was disappointed to find that Stephanie's and my room, like all the rest, had two queen size beds and that she had staked out the one closer to the door with her purse.

I collected Junior, Eddie, Vince, Zip, and Zero and took them downstairs to introduce them to their targets and run a perimeter around the pool. I found Julie and Abuela Sanja in the pool and Rachel laying out on red and white striped loungers, shaded by a tall umbrella watching the kids play. I hugged Julie's wet blue one-piece covered body tightly even getting a little wet but I didn't care. I hadn't seen her since December and even though we talked more now since the Scrog incident, so much happens in her life in small spaces of time I quickly get left behind. I promised her that we would spend some time together during this vacation and told her that Stephanie was here too, that I was finally trying to make her my girlfriend. She squealed with delight. She had hoped that after Scrog; Stephanie and I would get together.

I quickly made the assignments: Junior – Julie, Eddie – Rachel, Vince – Abuela Sanja; and let them know the rest of the family was upstairs. I mentioned that Stephanie was here too, that she had been kidnapped and attacked, and for them not to question the bruises on her face. Once all the luggage was brought up I dismissed the Miami Rangemen, keeping the keys to ten of the big black Chevy Suburbans.

By the time I got back upstairs kids were running around in bathing suits as parents got ready and tried desperately to cover everyone in sunscreen. I walked up to Marc, who was standing outside of my room, "Report."

"It was overheard that you took men down to the pool and now everyone is getting ready to go swimming."

It was still early afternoon, the heat of the day, we would be better to have indoor activities for another hour or two and avoid the blazing sun that is beating down right now. I knew this from my teen years living in Miami. Julie and family would be more use to the Florida sun, but Angelia's children were quite a bit lighter than me and more likely to burn. Not that telling her would change anything.

I bit my tongue and walked in my room preparing to get some water when I walked in on Stephanie. She had her back to me, half changed into her blue bikini, her top and cover up laying on the bed. I could only gawk at her flawless skin as she smoothed sunscreen all over her front and then tried to reach her back. I stepped forward.

"Here let me," I murmured and she jumped never having heard me come in. I took the bottle out of her hands as she covered her breasts, like she was hiding something I had never seen or touched or tasted before. It felt like Hawaii to me. Prepping her to go out onto the beach, I just needed my black swim trunks. But I was not going to let my guard down that much until we were on the island. I gently massaged the lotion into her creamy peach skin. Making sure I got every inch from her swim suit bottoms to the edge of her curly brown hair that I was holding off her neck with one hand while massaging the lotion in with my other.

"Babe." I handed her back her lotion.

"You shouldn't be in here." She said as she tied on her top and turned to face me.

"Babe it's my room too."

"This is my room, how is it your room?"

"Babe we are sharing a room."

"I need my own room. I can't share a room with you."

"Babe we've been sharing a room. This is even easier because we have two beds."

"But there is no dressing room. I have nowhere to change." She picked up her cover-up and waved it at me as she went into the bathroom leaving the door cracked open so we could keep talking.

"Babe, it's not a problem. You don't have anything I haven't seen before." I know I've used this line on her before, it worked then, maybe it will work again.

"Ranger, it's not acceptable for us to be in the same room because I'm in a relationship with someone else and you want to have a relationship with me."

"That's no different than the last two nights that we shared a bed together."

"I was staying with you for safety reasons. This whole floor is safe, I don't need to be in a room with you." She said as she slipped her geometrically patterned cover-up on.

"Babe, you are in my room and in my bed every night. That doesn't mean we are having sex. We have shared space before and not had sex."

"Ranger can't you see it's not right? If I was dating you, you wouldn't let me spend the night at Joe's house."

"That's because the only reason you spend the night at Morelli's house is to have sex. I spend the night with you for a variety of reasons besides sex. Many having to do with you being safe and the fact that I sleep better when you're around."

"I'm going down to the pool. While I am gone, you have to draw some boundaries. You need to figure out another place to stay. You can go down and stay with your men, but you are not sleeping in my room." She put the 30 SPF Coppertone sunscreen in her pink beach bag, slipped her feet into her tan flipflops, slung the bag over her shoulder and left.

I just stood there knowing anything I had to say right now was going to make this worse. She was on a stubborn streak and the more I pressed her, like a tick on a dog's hind leg, she would just dig in deeper. I also knew the reason she was being so adamant about physical space was because she was losing her internal battle to stay away from me. She wanted me and she wanted me bad. But like a fish on the line of an experienced fisherman's pole, the more she struggles, the more tired she becomes and the sooner I can reel her in.

I opened the door to find Marc standing there. "Report"

"Your parents, sisters and their kids have all gone down to the pool."

"Stephanie is ready to go down, you are on for the afternoon. Do you know where the electronics and my other bags got put?"

"All extra luggage was put in the men's rooms on nine. The SUV's were unloaded by the Miami guys and they weren't sure where to put everything."

"Stay close to Stephanie." I was already jealous of my men that were around the pool and going to get an eye full of her, but that didn't serve my purpose right now. Right now, I had to get the cellular network and Internet running before my family started logging on to the hotel's free wireless and giving our location away.

I went down to nine and into the second door on the right. I immediately saw a huge pile of bags, my box of electronics, and all the plastic beach toys I bought. I had to wonder what they thought the Trenton men were going to do with a bunch of plastic buckets and shovels.

I collected the electronics and my Sergio go-bags and headed back up to, not mine, Stephanie's room and began setting everything up. Five minutes later everything was green lit and I pulled out my laptop and logged on to the Manoso network. Everything worked just fine. I texted all the adults to let them know the internet was working, give them the name and password, and warn them against anyone logging onto the free hotel network and giving our location away.

I left the room realizing all the men were downstairs by the pool, except for the night shift who would now be sleeping. I took this time to call Haywood for a report. Sybo told me none of the prints belonged to any of the known men. They thought they had identified two more men from the video. They were the Hispanic sidekicks shooting up the front door and hitting it with the sledgehammer.

Filipe Batres and Santiago Menchu were both Kaibiles, a Guatemalan Army special forces unit trained in jungle warfare. In 2011, the government reorganized the Kaibiles when a four-man team was finally brought to justice for the slaughter of a peaceful village of 200 men, women, and children in the 1980's. These two were let go as part of the house cleaning and instead of fighting the drug trade for the government, they turned to helping them get past the border patrols.

We now had the names of all six men, the only one we were missing was the elusive Boris. I was certain that he was not a hired mercenary, but a part of Sergio's private entourage here to carry out his bidding. I was also fairly certain that Mukhtar was not sent home, and none of these men would get paid a million dollars. Sergio is a cheap skate who is tight with his millions. He would make the offer but then have Boris kill all these men off rather than pay them.

The muggy evening went by quietly once everyone came up from the pool. We ordered room service in mass, my men collecting and checking it before delivering it to the rooms. Stephanie had made friends with my sisters, while sitting around the pool getting sun and was now spending the evening with Angelia, Oshanna and Julio. My three-musketeer nightmare. Angelia left my parents to babysit Shanna and Kendrick to hang out with other adults so I couldn't very well barge in and insist Stephanie leave to have dinner with me. Even though she was ten years older than Oshanna, shopping and maturity wise they weren't that far apart.

I knocked on Ron and Rachel's room and did the credit card, ID, and phone swap with them. I got a big hug from Julie for her new phone and she picked out the phone case with the big furry brown dog on it. Grandma Sanja was totally cooperative over her credit cards and ID, but fussed about her phone. She was used to using it all day long, knew all the functions, and had all of her favorite apps right on the front screen. I spent half an hour downloading apps and setting up her new phone so the front screen looked like her old phone. I showed her the contact list with everyone's numbers preprogramed in and she smiled, accepting the phone from me.

I was finally settled on the pink paisley bed covers, leaned back against the wooden headboards in my room, worked on my laptop and waited for Stephanie. I was surprised when she showed up about seven, with her bathing suit cover up on, grabbed her three bags out of the closet and headed for the door.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"Oshanna has an extra bed in her room and she has invited me to stay with her." She explained as she tried unsuccessfully to carry all three of her bags with her purse.

"Let me help you." I offered standing.

"No. I got it." And she dragged her luggage to the door where Marc was standing, dumping the heaviest two bags at his feet and kept walking. I grimaced hating all the things my siblings were telling her about our family, but especially about me growing up. Half an hour went by and I couldn't take the not knowing. I headed down to Oshanna's room, uncertain if they would even let me in. Julio answered the door and then tried to close it in my face.

"Sorry bro, private party."

I could smell the booze on his breath and knew he had been into the minibar. I've faced killers and madmen. Dictators who have committed genocide against their own people. Drug lords who sell to children to get them hooked on smak. War lords who buy and sell weapons on the black market to be used against innocent civilians. I can stand up to my younger pain-in-the-ass brother. At least that was what I was telling myself.

"Haven't hung out with you in forever." (Like never.) "Thought it would be a good chance to get caught up." We didn't get along as kids and as an adult while I came back to go to Rutgers, he was finishing high school, driving a car he didn't have to pay for, with insurance he wasn't paying for, filled with gas he wasn't paying for.

I had worked every afternoon, after school and on weekends to have my own money and buy my first car. My parents paid for it all for him, as long as he took my sisters to and from school every day, because the neighborhoods had become rougher and they had been harassed walking to and from school. On the weekends, he went out with friends who had money and no car who would take him out and pay for everything as long as he would drive.

He was a mooch I couldn't stand then and he is an even bigger one now. "Working" for my dad as a site supervisor means he drives around all day, in his white company truck and checks that jobs are on task. Anyone else would have it done in the first two hours of the day and get back to the office to get some real work done. He, however, drags it out and makes every day a joyride from one site to the next, never actually doing anything. And he complains to my dad that he doesn't make enough money so he has consistently given him raises every year since he started working there the summer after high school.

It's now been twelve years and he is nothing but a leach on my father's backside. Three years ago, he got married to a nice young college girl out here on a scholarship. He immediately got her pregnant and when she realized he only married her so he would have a woman to take care of him while he screwed around, she divorced him and moved back to live with her family in California. When he started having to pay child support he once again hit my dad up for a raise and, knowing it was going to his grandchild, my father obliged him.

I drive all Porsches, wear Armani suits, and run my own company, that has four offices, thousands of accounts, and over two hundred employees. I can own as many designer clothes as I would let Ella buy for me. I have a decent stock portfolio. I am affording this whole getaway for everyone and round the clock protection. None of my siblings can hold a candle to my success. But together they make me feel like that short little long-haired boy that used to get beat up by bullies.

I moved into the doorway not giving him a chance to close it on me. Making him step back from me. I could care less what my siblings said to each other and other members of the family. But I want to know what they are telling Stephanie about me. I closed the door behind me and went to the brown minibar partially checking how drunk they might be and to get myself some liquor.

If I was going to have to tolerate my siblings I was going to need a few drinks. I poured myself a vodka rocks, in a clear plastic cup and drank it down in two gulps. I poured myself a double vodka and followed my brother back into the bedroom. I couldn't understand why they were in the bedroom instead of the living room, but I found Oshanna and Angelia on one bed, with a tray of steak with mashed potatoes, steamed broccoli, and a roll in front of them, that they seemed to be sharing. Stephanie and Julio on the other bed, a partial burger, fries and a chocolate shake in front of her, with Julio sitting way to close for my comfort, and leaning in closer to snag a fry.

I took a golden yellow chair out of the living room and dragged it into the bedroom and sat down with my drink. Stephanie, I observed, had changed into one of her night outfits of grey sweats with an older blue Ranger's t-shirt. I realized that I knew nothing of these three siblings that didn't come from my mother, father, or other siblings. The hard-working people in the family. I hadn't spent fifteen minutes talking to any of them in the past several years so there should be lots to talk about but I couldn't think of one thing I wanted to know. There was a pregnant pause in the room and everyone resumed their eating.

I decided to start, "Julio how are Allysa and Jacob?"

"That bitch is always wanting more money, telling me how expensive it is to live out in California and how much daycare costs. Her mother stays home and watches Jacob three days a week and she can get off her ass and work full-time if she needs more money, instead of trying to finish school. She'll never get a degree, she should give it up and just try to find a man to marry. Someone that can take care of both of them."

"He should be two by now?" I prompted.

"Yeah, he was two in February."

"Have you seen him recently? Do you have pictures?" I asked really wanting to know. Missing Julie all over again even though I had just seen her this afternoon.

"Bro, you took my phone that had all my pictures on it. I was trying to describe him to Stephanie. He looks like his mother, very petite with blond hair and light brown eyes. He is very active. I sent him a motorized red race car for his birthday and she sent me video of him driving it around the back yard. He's so cute and such a ham." He took a few more fries from her plate rubbing his arm against hers as he did it.

"You'll have to show me pictures when we get back." Stephanie said in between bites. They must not have ordered dinner until after she came to get her bags I realized.

"Oshanna, how is New York treating you?"

"Well I'm working full time at Eliza's fashion house. I was the model for one of the new Revlon mascaras. I'm going to be on billboards and in magazines."

"That's great. It's good that someone in the family can benefit from our unique heritage." Knowing that I had been harassingly called beautiful more than once by the guys in my unit because of my long, thick, black lashes.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked oversensitively.

"It means that women drool over my lashes and call me beautiful. I'm trying to be a mean badass not beautiful. It's nice that someone, who is beautiful, can monopolize on it."

"Oh."

"How are things going at work?" I asked her.

"Good, people really like me and really like my work. Most of it is mundane but I made some major changes to several designs and they liked them so much they are going to be featured in the show tomorrow. The one I can't go to." She pouted.

"I'm glad it's going well. And this is just a hump, it will pass and everyone can go back to their lives." I explained.

"Angelia, how are things going in your world?" I asked her.

"Well my life was going along just perfect, until all this happened. I have my husband, my kids, the house, my puppy that I couldn't bring." She frowned at me and flipped her red hair back out of her face. "Yoga and Pilates classes, play groups three times a week. My silver Mercedes GLC. I have everything I could want in my life and the kids are really easy so, yeah, my life was perfect before you brought some fanatics into it." Angelia stated.

"The nuts have always been there, I've just gotten to them before they have gotten to you." I told her.

"You mean you kill them before they can hurt us." Angelia said. Wow, blunt much?

"Usually it means catching them and getting them deported. Sometimes a stern talking to will do."

"What's so different about these guys that make it so dangerous we all had to leave the state?" Oshanna asked.

"I have contacts all over the world and I hear about problems while they are only whispers in the wind. By the time they materialize, I am already prepared and remove the threat. This time I heard nothing. There are six guys after you all being paid a lot of money to kill you. I don't know who they are or where they are so it was better to make sure you are all safe while we find them." I explained.

"So why is Stephanie in danger? I mean they kidnapped her out of another man's bed. Obviously, she is not in a relationship with you." Julio, the _pendejo,_ asked while he rubbed Stephanie's arm. _(asshole)_

"That is a much more difficult explanation. Stephanie is currently dating someone else. But we have been together in the past and people have made the assumption that she is important to me."

"Oh, so you've done the bedroom dancing thing, even if it's not happening right now." Julio surmised. "What you need Steph, is a big strong man to guard your body, and I know just the man who can handle that position." He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulled her closer and continued. "There's an extra bed in my room and big strong arms to keep you safe."

Stephanie looked directly to me, laughter in her eyes because my brother might be strong but he is a twig compared to me, and she left my room to avoid the big strong arms, and hot body, that was there.

"Thanks Julio I'll keep that in mind, but right now I'm going to stick with this big bed all to myself." and she shook his arm off her shoulders.

"Well its getting late. Angelia, I know you have to be up early for the kids and Oshanna you need your beauty sleep so you can avoid those dark circles under your eyes." I started hoping to end this little party.

"Not yet," Oshanna said. "I haven't gotten to see Angelia in ages and she was telling me about this new dress she bought for a charity event."

"Yes, you have to see it! I'll have to take pictures and send them to you. It's the newest color this season peach rose, it is mid-thigh length, with rose gold inlays around the bodice but the back is a dream with these little lace-up ties all the way from the butt to the mid back. And I have the best shoes to go with it…" I tuned her out and thought about refreshing my drink. I know this crew and midnight is early to them.

Angelia will just sleep in and expect my parents to take care of her kids. Julio and Oshanna are counting on not having to work and getting to sleep in. Stephanie, though, is not a night owl and she will want to crash out once she finishes eating and gets her plates picked back up. On the surface, she may seem to have a lot in common with these three but really, she works harder than all three put together and she has conceded most of her partying days, passing out after three drinks and waking up with a hangover.

Everyone was looking at me with anticipation like they were waiting for an answer to a question I hadn't heard. "I missed that, just running over the plans for tomorrow."

"Yeah," Angelia said, "that's what we want to know. What are the plans for tomorrow?"

"We have to be checked out of here by eleven and we can't load onto the ship till two so we have about three hours to go to the beach or something simple-"

"Like shopping, they have the Crown Center Mall right near here." Oshanna exclaimed.

"Shopping and malls are security nightmares, beside you all have full suitcases. What could you possibly need?" I asked her.

"Shoes, always need shoes, and more cool beach outfits. This is the perfect season for beach-ware shopping." Angelia answered. There was a reason I wore all black and it is more than the need to intimidate. Black is easy to match and they make everything in black, bodily fluids don't easily show up against it and I didn't need fifteen different shirts in all different colors to look good. I looked good in black, end of story.

"Sandals, I need some beach sandals. I brought two pairs but I don't really know if they are good for the beach." Oshanna continued. I kept my mouth closed. Flip flops are all you need for the beach. Anything else gets in the seawater and it will be ruined so you will have to go buy more. I got up then.

"Anyone else want a drink while I am up?"

"Yes, make me a screwdriver. The only mixers in there are OJ and Pepsi, and you know how much I hate Pepsi." Angelia said.

"Yeah a screwdriver for me too." Oshanna said.

"Stephanie?" A few drinks and she would pass out ending this party.

"I'm still working on this chocolate shake and nothing goes with a chocolate shake except for maybe Kahlua."

"Nope, no Kalua in the minibar, but on the ship there are several full bars so keep your credit cards handy." I told them. I went into the other room to fix the drinks. Things were going well and I wasn't leaving till Stephanie was in bed to sleep. Talk continued for another hour and all the dishes got put back out on the cart to go back to the kitchen. Around ten thirty, Stephanie's eyes were dropping and she finally announced that she needed to go to bed. I was hoping they would try to keep her up and she would return to our room, but they all said their goodnights and left except Oshanna who obviously wanted me to leave so she could get ready for bed too.

I got up and pulled Stephanie into my arms, "Babe." I put so much meaning into that word. _'I love you, I want you by me, I hope you sleep good tonight. I'll see you in the morning.'_ I kissed her on the forehead and left. I left the chair in the bedroom knowing that in two hours, unable to sleep, I would seek her out.

I showered, dressing for the gym in the morning, and played catch up with some emails, sending some back to Tank to handle. I am in the wind, as far as the company is concerned. I needed to let him handle the day to day things and focus on handling my family. Finally, a little after midnight, I put my tennis shoes on and with the master key I had, entered Oshanna's room. Stephanie was all curled up on one side of the bed so I kicked off my tennis shoes and lay down on top of the covers next to her. Not touching her but being close enough to smell her.

Friday April 15

I woke at 05:00 with Stephanie's head on my shoulder, her arm wrapped around my chest, her left leg and blanket thrown over mine. She always gravitates to me in sleep. It warms my heart because she is going to be mine, and in sleep she accepts it. How do I get through to her that she and Morelli are over? This is the puzzle for today. I worked to extricate myself from her grip and she woke up tightening her arm around me momentarily before realizing what she was doing, releasing me and rolling away. I slipped on my running shoes, went down to the gym, unsurprised at my men that came wandering in over the next hour and a half.

Even though everyone wouldn't be up, my men and I were all on duty at 07:00. I made the concession that they could all order hall service and eat while waiting for the families to get up. The hotel offered a free continental breakfast downstairs as well as a dining room breakfast where you can order whatever you want, but I had everyone order room service again. It is just safer and easier to protect everyone in their rooms. By 08:30 Isabella's family, Leyla's family, Rachel's family, my grandmothers, and my parents with Angelia's kids were up, eaten, packed, and ready to go for the day. Easy when you go to bed early.

Stephanie made an appearance to pull in her room service cart, her hair, sticking up in all directions, looking like she had just seen a ghost. I talked to Leyla and Isabella about what we could do for the next five hours and since we were headed to spend two weeks at the beach, they didn't want to go to the beach this morning. Finally, the zoo was brought up and out of all of the options, like Monkey Island and the Aquarium, it seemed the best choice for the large group, the kids and security. I sent Zip and Zero as additional security to the seven guards and six SUVs they had going.

I was left by choice with the dozing crew. They weren't going to get up until someone made them and that sounded good to me, the longer they slept the less I had to deal with them. By 09:30 Stephanie was a new person, in dark blue shorts, a tangerine t-shirt and sandals, ready to hit the day but the rest had just gotten up. I offered to take her to the Zoo to meet up with the rest of my family. I left orders that Oshanna and Angelia were to leave together and that they were all to be brought to the zoo once everyone was packed up and ready to go.

I packed Stephanie's luggage in the back with my luggage and all the electronics and we left with Marc in tow. The bright Florida sun was out with a few puffy white clouds as we cruised down the palm tree lined streets. It was already in the eighties expected to hit mid-nineties by noon. I hope everyone that needed it was covered in sunscreen, several hours under this intense sun and the kids would be fried.

"Babe, did you put on sunscreen?"

"Of course, I have been to Florida before. I know how fast you can get burned here." She smiled at me as she pulled the bottle out of her purse.

When we arrived at the zoo I sent Marc to find my family and secretly told him not to come back, to text when he found the location. I walked the zoo with Stephanie, seeing the animals through her eyes. For someone who never had many animals of her own, she really cares a lot about the fate of the endangered animals, and especially enjoyed seeing them feed the elephants. She loved the friendly, well trained rhinos that could be fed and petted and got a thrill out of feeding the giraffes with their 14-inch long purple tongues. We spent time looking at all the tigers running around and playing in their pool, and laughed at the howler monkeys swinging around in the tall trees.

Her favorite thing was the red panda, which doesn't look anything like a panda. They are small scurrying creatures, that are reddish with white faces and have long reddish ringed tails. But they have beady black eyes and it got Stephanie thinking about her baby, Rex, back home.

After we had been wandering for almost two hours I received texts from my men that everyone was safely at the zoo. The men texted each other their locations so that the stragglers could catch up with the rest of the family. Stephanie caught the flurry of texts and I explained that everyone was now at the Zoo and she wanted to catch up to them. I read their last location and we headed off in that direction, choosing to take the light rail to get there faster.

Finally, at 15:00 I signaled the group that it was time to leave. We had an hour to get to the ship and get unloaded. I knew that for the ship we would only be allowed to carry stun guns. I gave my men orders by text to load all live ammunition and weapons in the crates with the LSATs.

All the luggage and family were lined up, with each person ready to get their own ship ID. There was a problem at first because we had a bunch of rooms reserved but they weren't assigned and no one could get on board and get their IDs without assigned rooms. I sat down with the map of the ship and the ship's steward, in his crisp blue uniform, to get all the rooms assigned and extra cots for the kids ordered. Smiling inside the whole while because Skylar had put my brother in an inside room three floors down, far away from Stephanie and the family.

When he complained, I told him it was the last room available and if he didn't like it, he could share a room with my men and I would give his room to two of them. He slunk away muttering under his breath that I was trying to get back at him for coming.

Finally, everyone was able to board with their luggage. They wanted each passenger to carry his or her own luggage. I hadn't realized that Angelia had brought four suitcases for herself and two each for her kids. She couldn't possibly carry all that luggage, I got approval again from the steward that my men could help her with the luggage. When it came up that she was exceeding the limit for bags per person, I explained that my men only brought one bag each so she was just compensating.

It was after 16:00 when we finally had everyone on board and settled. Stephanie knew we were in the same cabin, with one queen sized bed, but wasn't pitching a fit about it. I told her previously that there were limited rooms on the ship and that we needed to share. It was a relief to know she was beginning to seem more accepting to the fact that we would be spending time together. Her accepting this situation, for me was the biggest win of the get-a-way.

To be continued…

A/N: Thank you! Thank you! Thank you all for your reviews! They are all loved and appreciated. I have two more chapters this week then it is going to go to weekly updates.

As always big THANK YOU to my beta Sassysaint who makes my story's more readable. You are AWESOME! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

Second Big THANK YOU to my sister, Jonelle. Who is giving my stories a thorough technical analysis (ie deep proof reading) and fixing all my commas, apostrophes, making great suggestions and fixing all my many other mistakes. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

Finally, on-board the ship and almost to the safety of the island. Can you feel the anticipation building? Can Ranger get his family settled and safe enough so he can go after Sergio? Please read and review.

Ranger's Family Album

Mother's Mother – Abuela Rosa, Father's Mother – Abuela Sanja Manoso

Mother – Maria Father – Javier

Siblings and family in age order

Leyla (35) & Richard Gonzales– Rebecca (Becky) 12, Margaret (Maggie) 10, Richard (Ricky) 7, Michael (Mikie) 5

Angelia (34) & Jordan White – Shanna 5 – Kendrick (Ricky) 3

Ricardo Carlos Manoso (32)– Ranger

Julio Manoso (30) Ex Allysa – Jacob 2

Isabella (27) & Diego Diaz – Chris 8, Shylia 6, Parker 3

Oshanna Manoso (22)

Rachel & Ron – Julie 12, Fredrico (Freddie) 9, Cassandra (Cassie)6

Trenton Merry Men Assignments (20 Men)

Abuela Sanja – Vince

Abuela Rosa – Manuel

Maria – Erik

Leyla – Hal

Angelia – Woody

Isabella – Cal

Oshanna – Lester

Rachel – Eddie

Julie – Junior

Stephanie – Ranger, Marc

Extra's – Bobby, Ram, Zero, Zip

Night's – Chester, Chet, Gino, Mario, Ramon, Ryan


	11. Chapter 11 The Cruise

Chapter 11 The Cruise

Friday April 15 Midday

 _It was after 16:00 when we finally had everyone on board and settled. Stephanie knew we were in the same cabin, with one queen sized bed, but wasn't pitching a fit about it. I had told her that there were limited rooms on the ship and that we needed to share. It was a relief to know she was beginning to seem more accepting to the fact that we would be spending time together. Her accepting this situation, for me was the biggest win of the get-a-way._

Once onboard and settled into their larger exterior rooms, I texted everyone to meet for a family meeting at 16:30 in the dining room annex on level 4. The first thing I did when arriving in my and Stephanie's small 7x10 exterior room was to set up a cell phone system on top of the five-foot long white dresser. It had six drawers but it was a short dresser with two sets of three drawers side by side. The queen bed was on the far wall, underneath three port holes, covered in a beige and sea-foam green bedspread with a white square headboard and small white nightstands with a drawer on each side. The floor was covered in a white linoleum tiles splattered with green and yellow speckles. The right wall was split, one third being a small closet with white slatted doors and the other two-thirds a small bathroom with an airplane sized sink, toilet, and a two-foot by two-foot shower with a glass door that swung outward and locked in place.

Once we got out to sea there would not be any cell towers close enough to have working internet, so for one day the family would have to do without. I knew over long distances this system could broadcast for miles but wasn't sure in the closed steel ship how many floors the system would work through. I hoped that it would work on at least the five surrounding floors up and down. I stacked our luggage carefully in the small closet and worked the doors closed.

Most of my family was housed two floors above us, as they needed the bigger rooms that could sleep four to five people. Oshanna and my grandmothers were on the same hallway with me. My men were spread out in seven different rooms, four on the floor with most of my family and three on the floor we were on, and my brother (wide grin) was in an interior room on the second to the bottom level. It was at least a fifteen-minute and four flights of stairs walk for him to get anywhere. Skylar had done it again fulfilling all of my requests and desires too. Someday she deserved to find another good man to fill her life and be a father to Danny.

Dan "The Danger Man" had always lived up to his name and until he showed back up after a long leave, with a ring and a son on the way, we never thought he would settle down. Always one to tempt fate, he was still as daredevil reckless as ever, nothing had changed in who he was. He had saved my life more than once, but it was the kind of thing that you don't keep track of, just that you do for one another without thought. He had promised to take care of Julie and Rachel if I didn't make it, so I had no qualms about returning that promise to him.

It wasn't till we were on leave at the same time, when Danny was about nine months old, that I had called and was my usual abrupt self with Skylar while Dan wasn't available one night. When he called me back to chew me a new one, he told me that she walked on water and was his princess and I was to always treat her as such. He didn't care how I treated my women, or talked to my momma, I was to always treat her with great deference and respect and be over the top appreciative that she lived on this planet and be grateful she ever let me breathe the same air or I didn't have to worry about enemy fire 'cause he would take my ass out.

So I learned how to talk to Skylar because every time I called he would see my number and have her answer the phone, and when we were on base or away on missions he took great pride in handing me his phone so I could stumble through being nice to her. It began to be a great joke between us until that fateful night he stepped in the path of an IUD in front of me and didn't come home breathing. That night she became my princess and Danny my prince and I their knight in tarnished armor. I will never be able to do enough for them to pay him back for the many times he saved me. But I do all the little things I can because a little of his love for them lives on, through me.

She had done it again, always over the top doing the best work and knowing it was top-secret travel arrangements that she made. Something no one could ever search, find, or trace back to me. She was an angel to put up with him, and all of us that tagged along as his friends. Never complaining about our crazy work that he couldn't talk about or the nightmares that came with it. It's funny, as abrupt as I still am with Stephanie on the phone, I wouldn't tolerate anyone else disrespecting her. She gives me a glimpse of what their relationship must have been like, because Skylar was the world to Danger. She made him a more complete person and healed him of the unseen wounds our line of work produced. Stephanie has that effect on me, I have just been too slow to acknowledge it and embrace her place in my life and heart as the light to my dark, dark world, as the magic that heals my wounds and makes me feel like I could be whole again.

I shook myself out of this line of thought, readying myself to round up my family and get them prepared for the rules of the cruise. I used the satellite phone to contact Tank and find out the status of the crew and passenger review being conducted on all people on-board the ship and the island.

"There is only one crew member that was flagged for having heavy debt and a previous record for stealing. It was over eight years ago or he wouldn't have been able to get the job on The Retreat with Blue Island Cruise Lines. There are nine passengers flagged that are all single men, three who have booked in the past 24 hours. But running them through the system they all seem stable, with long term jobs, two with houses, and good credit histories. All three that booked in the past 24 hours did so on a website that offers special deals for last minute cruises. It seems to specialize in filling up the empty rooms on a cruise at a great discount." Tank said.

"There are only five crew on the island and they all check out, three in the kitchen, one to clean the cabins and help out in the dining room and one activities coordinator. Most of them have worked for the cruise line for more than three years. They actually take them off this cruise ship for the time they are on the island and the ship works without them. The shortest time one has worked for the cruise line is a year and a half. I would say that you are safe on the ship as long as everyone stays with their bodyguard." Tank reported.

"Word is getting around that you are searching for these men and everyone and their neighbors are calling in tips. First, an unidentified Middle Eastern man was found floating in Newark Bay with his hands and feet tied. He is reported to be missing three fingers and part of an ear." I shook my head knowing that however Mukhtar got mixed up with these guys he had to know that protecting Stephanie would cost him and I owed his family for the sacrifice that saved her.

"Second, we have found the hotel room the video was shot in, a small non-chain family owned motel off 95, outside Trenton. They must have wrapped Stephanie in one blanket, the other blanket was found wrapped around the body behind a dumpster. When they checked the room out it was untouched except for missing its blankets, the beds don't appear to have been slept in. I have men going over it now to see if we can find any clues.

These guys are randomly being sighted all over and we are checking out all plausible leads but word on the street is that five foreign men with crates of hardware hired a small plane to fly them out of Newark. They had too much hardware and had to cancel that plane and shop around to find a larger plane. Rumor has them finally leaving on a King Air B200, privately owned and flown by a James Robinson, age 53, resident of Newark, who has been flying since he was in the army as a cargo pilot thirty years ago. The hanger has no names, and reports that they had a full tank of gas. No flight plan was filed and they left in the middle of the night, last night. One rumor is that they were headed out west but I have not been able to nail that down."

"Keep me updated with anything new." I told him and I disconnected. I was left wondering if they had identified us loading onto the Concorde, found the filed flight plan and followed it to Montana, and how long would it take them to realize they were tricked.

I waited in the elegant dining room that was filled with white cloth covered round tables, the soft evening lighting created by tall chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. The walls had a creamy egg-shell, wallpaper that was colored with three different colors of green swirls. The dark green carpet had streaks of different dark red and blue colors in square shaped patterns. My family congregated at 14:40, everyone arriving on time but Angelia and her kids. I sent Marc down to her room as there was no response by text from her bodyguard Woody. I started the meeting without them not wanting to hold everybody up.

"Everybody have a seat." I began knowing with all the children there I needed to keep this brief and to the point. "Dinner will be in this room at six o'clock sharp. We will all eat in here together for ease and security, because your guards have to eat at the same time you do. Breakfast is between six and eight in here as well. I expect we can be packed up and off the ship by nine. That will give us time to get settled in the cabanas-"

"Carlos! We can't get off the ship at 9:00. There are a lot of things we want to do on the ship, since we are only going to be onboard for one day." Isabella pleaded.

"Yeah, the kids were already planning out their activities, mini golf, dodgeball at 10 am, crafts at 11:30, mini cooking class at noon, laser tag at 1, scavenger hunt at 2, Battle of the Ages at 3, there are movies in the theater all day and a gaming room with Dance Fever II as well as dozens of other games." Leyla added.

My phone beeped with a text from Marc. One quick glance showed: NP Bathroom issue, 15 min.

"Seriously you can't expect us to leave the ship at 9 am. I was going to have a mani/pedi and I can't get an appointment in the salon till 1. I'm not going to be able to get one for two whole weeks, my manicure is going to be ruined by then." Oshanna whined.

Damn, I had every intention of getting them off this tug boat and secured on the island as soon as possible. "Ok," I regrouped, "Dinner is at six on the island. If everyone is packed up in the morning we can plan to leave the ship at 5pm. You will have to handle your own luggage for the most part as the men will be handling their own. That will give us time to assign cabanas, dump your luggage, and make it to the dining room by six. Meals on the island are at more specific times with snacks put out in between, so if you want a meal you have to make it to the kitchen on time."

"Ship rules: everyone stays with your bodyguards, they must be in your sight at all times. You can use your phones onboard but there is no working internet till we are on the island. Bodyguards report positions every hour. There is safety in groups so stay together and have fun. Dismissed." I ordered, even as I realized I was treating my family like they were in the military. My family, however, didn't seem to notice I was abrupt in my dismissal and all started talking and heading for the door.

I turned to Stephanie. "Did you see the list of activities for tonight and tomorrow? Is there anything specific you want to do while you are on board?"

She smiled at me. "I want to see the comedy show tonight, and tomorrow I haven't even looked but Oshanna made a good point. If we are going to be on an island for the next two weeks I need a manicure and pedicure. Well at least a pedicure. I hate looking at my toes in sandals if the polish is all messed up."

"Come on." I took her hand and led her back to our room. I dug out the flyer that had the ships amenities on it and called the salon. They had open appointments in the afternoon and I reserved all open times at 1, 1:30, 2 and 3.

"Babe, they only have afternoon appointments in the salon, what time do you want to go?"

"When is everyone else going? I would like to go with your sisters so I have someone to talk to."

Then I texted my mother, grandmothers, Rachel and all my sisters. I explained that I understood they wouldn't have nail opportunities for the next two weeks and that I had reserved the salon for the afternoon. I gave them the reservation times and told them to call the salon, schedule an appointment and text me their times.

Then I texted Angelia. ' _I know you were having difficulties, we missed you at the meeting. In short: Stick with your bodyguard, keep him in sight at all times. Pack in the morning, have fun all day. We leave the ship at 5pm. Dinner on the island at 6. My men will be handling their own luggage but if yours are ready early I will find you help with all of yours. I don't expect you to carry 8 bags by yourself_.'

A moment later my phone started to beep incessantly.

' _Oshanna 1pm.' 'Isabella 2pm.' 'Leyla 2pm.' 'Your father, grandmothers and I will take turns watching your kids while you get your nails done.' 'Sanja, Rosa, Maria 3pm.' 'Rachel and Julie 1:30.'_ I hadn't even thought about Julie wanting to get her nails done. Did they start doing that in a salon at 12? It was just one more thing about her life I didn't know.

Stephanie called the Salon and scheduled for 1. A few minutes later my phone binged with: ' _Angelia 1:30. Thank you Carlos'_ I guess they ran out of 1 o'clock appointments because I know if Angelia could she would have her nails done with Oshanna.

I didn't know what else was on the agenda, I just took Stephanie in my arms and pulled her close breathing in the scent of her strawberry shampoo and slightly citrusy skin. I could lose myself in her if I let go and with everything going on I couldn't afford to but just for a moment I held her close and let the world wash away.

She looked up at me, the question plain on her face. "Babe." It was all I could say and with it said, 'I love you, I need you, for a moment I just had to hold you.' I released her and said, "Everyone is running around the ship packing it in. What do you want to do? Dinner is in an hour and fifteen."

"I was looking at the ships schedule. There are two different bars having shows starting at 5: 'Find your favorite Martini' where they make up dozens of different types of Martini's and you get to try different ones, for a fee, and 'What's that Drink?' If you guess what the bartender mixes up you get to drink it for free."

"Drinking before dinner is what you want to go do?"

"It's been a stressful couple of days. I think a drink to relax a little, now that we are safe, is a good idea for both of us." She poked me in the chest as she made her point and then put her hand on my shoulder and ran it down my arm to my hand and squeezed. She released it suddenly, pulled out her phone, and began typing furiously away. A few moments later her phone was pinging and she summarized the messages for me.

"Oshanna can join us, I don't know about Julio but Angelia is taking her kids to the PlayHouse, a room for kids ages three to seven. Let's go down the hall and get Oshanna."

I internally rolled my eyes. Oshanna was my baby sister and yes, I loved her, but she is very selfish, self-absorbed, and totally fashion conscious. She never finished her degree in fashion design because she interned at a designer's and got a job. That led to her current job in a fashion house that she was doing so well at but she would always be limited as an underling unable to get out on top until she finished her degree.

"You need to step out in the hall. I have been sweating in this outfit all day and I need to change." She pushed me towards the door as she spoke. I let her, knowing I could be an immovable rock if I wanted but didn't want to upset her and have her pitch a fit about sharing a room with me. Seven minutes later she came out, her hair pulled back on both sides but loose down the back, wearing jeans and a pink t-shirt with the same sandals.

"Ok, I'm ready now." She announced.

"Ok," I told her, "let me get one thing." I walked quickly to my bag and got two condoms from the box buried in my bag. I slipped one into my pocket and one under my watch. I knew I was being overly hopeful, but a few drinks might lower her resistance. Regardless I was going to be prepared for all eventualities.

After Rachel, I always made sure I was prepared for the possibility of sex ahead of time even while out on missions. I learned to not only have protection but to always have it ready and with-in arms reach. In the Rangers, Jerry showed me how he always carried three on him. One in his pocket, one in his boot, and one under his watch.

When you get the girl, and are getting naked the one in your pocket goes on the nightstand as your clothes come off. After round one, if things got going again you roll over and get the second one out of the boot that you always place by the side of the bed. Then he usually fell asleep. But when he woke up later for round number three he didn't have to get out of bed. He has the last 'magic' condom under his watch ready to go. Three rounds for me can be a warm up, so I usually just start out with a whole box of six on the night stand to announce my intentions. But I couldn't be so blatant with Stephanie. Nothing would have her running faster than seeing me with a condom. One in my pocket and one under my watch would get the night started if it happened to turn romantic.

I locked up our room and followed Stephanie down the narrow hall to where Lester stood guarding Oshanna's room. She knocked on the door and Oshanna came out wearing a tight black miniskirt and a low-cut black and white shirt that crisscrossed over her chest, giving anyone who looked an ample view of her C+ endowments. "Julio is going to meet us there. He said he has to change before coming." She announced.

What he had to do was dress to impress the chicks he was hoping to find onboard. Oshanna led the way with Lester two steps behind her. "Come on Babe." I put my hand on the small of her back and led her down the hallway so narrow we could barely walk side by side.

The Blue Lagoon Lounge was aptly named as the walls were all blue, starting with a barely there sky blue at the ceiling and slowly darkening as it traveled to the floor. At waist height it was a deep royal blue, almost turning black by the time you got to the bottom. All the way around the room sea life were painted on the walls. Fish of every size and color, turtles, dolphins, sharks, the whole right wall was a complicated reef that looked like a scene out of Finding Nemo. The floor was some black sparkly flooring, that covered the entire thirty-foot long by sixty-foot wide room. The right one-third of the room was covered in black square tables with four elegantly scrolled chairs at each one, with the bar all the way at the far end. The next part of the room was an empty dance floor with a disco ball turning in the middle, shining dazzling lights all around the floor and walls. On the left side of the room were a few more rows of staggered tables and chairs.

When we entered the lounge, the seating around the bar was half filled as they were just getting started. I steered Stephanie toward one table in the back of the room and she took my hand and dragged me up towards the front. "We can't sit all the way back here, we will never see or hear anything." She told me. I nodded at Lester to stay in the back and followed her up to the front of the room.

I led her to the table closest to the bar on the right, next to the wall and pulled out an elegant black welded chair from our little table that had a lit votive in the middle for Stephanie to sit in. She was now sitting with her back to the wall facing the bar. I took the chair to the right of her. I angled it so my back was to the corner that was ten feet behind me, the bar was on my right, the wall was on my left. I could watch the door, the bar, and all the patrons. Oshanna sat next to Stephanie, across from me.

Julio hung back in his pressed slacks and tight-fitting button up light brown silk shirt, choosing to sit by himself at a table in the middle of the room close to a table of four women who appeared to be together and in their twenties. He was my brother and though he hadn't developed his body as much as I had, he was almost as handsome as me, with a body that was quite muscular. He wasn't bulked up but had good definition in his chest and arms that showed through the thin shirt. I wasn't here to impress anyone but began feeling underdressed in my RangeMan t-shirt and black army boots.

No sooner had I sat down than my phone began dinging with texts so I turned the alerts to vibrate only and watched the texts come in. Both grandmas were at a show together with my parents; Isabella, Leyla and Angelia were all in the kid's play rooms for the different ages. Rachel and Julie were on the deck playing miniature golf.

A young black woman with a weave, looking starched in her tightly pressed blue uniform came in front of the bar and started the show, microphone in hand.

"Good Evening, my name is Shandra and I will be your host for 'What's That Drink?'. For the next fifty minutes we are going to make drinks and if you can guess the name of the drink you get to drink it for free. If you want to try a drink that we make, show me your room key and we will start you a tab. My colleague Todd is going to be mixing up the drinks and I will announce their ingredients as he does. We will not be specific with the amount of each ingredient, there are some drinks that are called one thing if 1 ounces of an alcohol is used and called something different if 2 ounces of that same alcohol is used. Either name will win you the drink. You just need to name a drink that has all of the ingredients used in it.

"Now the first drink may have been one of your old favorite reruns, 'cause no one here looks old enough to have seen it when it was first run. The ingredients are vodka, peach schnapps, orange juice and cranberry juice."

To my shock, Stephanie's hand went up along with three other people and Shandra called on her.

"It's a Gilligan's Island." Stephanie answered.

"That's right, have you ever had one before?" Shandra asked her and the theme to Gilligan's Island played over the loud speakers.

"Yes, a couple of times." Stephanie answered.

Shandra picked up the drink and brought it over to our table and set it in front of Stephanie.

"Does anyone else want to try one?" Shandra asked and several hands went up. Todd made the drinks and Shandra passed them out reminding everyone to tip their bartenders.

"This next drink is a man's drink," Shandra continued. She turned around to watch Todd, a brown haired, very tan, mid thirty-year-old start mixing up the drink.

"It is Bacardi 151 rum, Everclear, topped off with coke and the juice of half a lime. Its name causes things to rumble." Once again Stephanie's hand shot up in the air. To say I was surprised was an understatement. I have rarely seen her drink anything stronger than a beer or wine. I know that sometimes she went out and assumed that she might have a mixed drink now and then, but I never expected her to know the names of many different mixed drinks.

Shandra picked on a blond headed gentleman sitting at a table with a woman.

"A purple pirate." He answered.

"No, it's not a purple pirate." Then she picked on another man who had his hand up.

"Is it the Booty Juice?"

"No, It's not the Booty Juice."

She finally picked on Stephanie again.

"It's the Bacardi Rum Volcano." Stephanie answered.

"Close enough. It's really just the Bacardi Volcano." Shandra answered and brought the drink over to our table and set it in front of Stephanie, where her other drink was sitting only a few sips taken out of it. She took the drink and slid it over to me.

"Babe, I'm working." I told her and slid the drink over to Oshanna.

"That's too strong for me. I like mixed drinks that are fruity," She pushed the drink back over to me and I texted Julio to come get it and pushed it to the middle of the table on the other side of the votive. Julio was leaning over talking to the four girls at the table by him. I watched him look at his text and then over to our table and I pointed to the drink.

"This next one is a favorite for men to receive but women like to drink. It's made with one-part whiskey and one-part Everclear, then chocolate milk topped with whipped cream." She turned around to see how far Todd was on making the drink. Suddenly he lit it on fire and Stephanie's hand shot up in the air. Julio showed up next to our table and I pushed the drink over to him. Without a word, he snatched it up and wandered back to his table.

A few more hands went up around the room.

"A flaming blow job." One woman answered and Shandra said yes and took the drink over to her.

"I know all the men want one, but how many of you want to try this drink?" Several hands went up and one lady loudly asked not to have hers set on fire because she liked the cream on top.

Shandra distributed the drinks, writing down names and room numbers.

"Now this next one is another man's drink. In fact, it may take three men to drink it. Over ice we pour equal parts: Johnny Walker, Jim Bean, and Jack Daniels. They are famous around Christmas."

Several hands went up and Stephanie just sat there a puzzled look on her face. There were several guesses and suddenly Stephanie's hand shot up again.

Shandra got around to Stephanie and she answered, "The Three Wise Men."

"That is correct, of course after drinking this the three men are not going to be very wise." Shandra answered and got some giggles from around the room. Then she asked who else would like to try one but no one else raised their hand. I was hoping she wasn't going to pass this one to me because I swore off whiskey years ago after waking up one too many times with bloody knuckles or my room torn apart unable to remember what I had done or who I had gotten in a fight with.

Stephanie just picked up the glass and held it out to Julio who came back over greedily and took it from her. He gave her a big smile, "We've got to go out drinking one of these days. I get tired of drinking the same thing over and over and it's nice to know someone who likes variations to their drinks." I had to laugh, Stephanie's variation ran along the lines of buying Corona instead of Bud.

Two more drinks were guessed at, with Stephanie raising her hand for both of them. "This next one is what you will hope to find on the islands when we come into port. It has Bacardi 151, Malibu coconut rum, pineapple juice, and cranberry juice." Stephanie leaned over to Oshanna and whispered, "It's called a Bahama Breeze." And Oshanna's hand shot up.

Shandra started calling on the table of four girls that all had their hands up. After they guessed wrong three times Shandra called on Oshanna. "A Bahama Breeze." Oshanna answered and was delighted when Shandra brought the drink over.

"I thought you would like that one." Stephanie told her. "It's very fruity and with the 151 it has a kick." Stephanie took a big swig and was almost done with the first drink she had won.

Several people wanted to try this drink and Shandra was busy serving everyone. "Babe, how do you know so many mixed drinks? I can count on one hand the number of mixed drinks I've seen you drink."

She started talking while Shanda kept announcing drinks.

"Um, one semester in college I had some morning classes and twice a week but the only time I could fit in Psych 101 was at eight o'clock at night. My morning classes got over at one in the afternoon. At the time I was living off campus and it was a pain to catch a bus home every afternoon and then back again in the evening. Plus, by one in the afternoon I was starving. So, I would go to a local bar that was right off the campus and had great food. Hamburgers, chili cheese fries, nachos, onion rings. I would get a booth to hang out in, study and eat until it was time to go to my evening class. The waitress wouldn't care during the slow afternoon but would get aggravated with me sitting there during the busy dinner hours when they had a line of customers. So one night she kicked me out, said they needed the booth but I could go sit at the bar. Well, Chester was the guy behind the bar and we got to talking and he kept wanting to make me a drink." She stopped talking for a minute so she could listen to Shandra.

"This next one is what you will see early in the morning if you take a walk along the ships bow. It has spiced rum, triple sec, orange juice, pineapple juice and grenadine on top."

Once again Stephanie's hand went up. The only other person to raise their hand got it wrong so she was chosen again. "Tropical Sunrise" she answered. Shandra responded in the affirmative and brought the drink over. Stephanie drank down the rest of her drink, placing the empty in the middle of the table and took a big sip.

"Careful Babe, there is a lot of alcohol in that and they don't have a McDonald's here on the ship."

She just looked at me. "It's ok, I still have to eat dinner and then I will be alright." She glanced over at Oshanna. "You're going to need another drink soon. Next time they make one you think you will like, let me know and we will try to get it for you." Then she continued with her story. "So, every evening he kept trying to make me a drink, offering me drinks that were ordered by other people to temp me. I explained that I had to go to class and couldn't be drunk. Finally, he made me a mini drink in a two-shot glass and handed me a bartending book. He told me what was in the drink and if I could find it I could have it. So that's how it started. He continued to make me many kinds of drinks in this little glass that barely had any alcohol in them and I kept looking them up.

"Then sometimes people would order a drink he didn't know and I would look it up and read it to him. Occassionally when I needed a break from my school work I would order some food and sit there reading the Book of Mixology. He had several bartending books but that one was my favorite and if I found a drink I wanted to try he would make it for me in the mini glass. Honestly, he wanted to ask me out but he worked afternoons and evenings and I had classes in the morning so our schedules never worked out. Constantly making me these little drinks was his way of keeping me talking to him and giving him a way to flirt without being obtuse and a bother.

"My third time sitting at the bar doing this he made me some drinks that were too strong. I put my head down and passed out right there on the bar, sleeping through my class. After that he was always careful to make them really weak and watch me to make sure I didn't look drunk. I can tell you I went to class buzzed more than once and it made the class a whole lot more interesting." She smiled at me.

Several more drinks had passed us by, and Stephanie didn't raise her hand but looked like she wanted to.

"Why don't you drink mixed drinks now?" I asked her.

"Well they tend to sneak up on me. I don't feel them while I am drinking them, then blam I'm throwing up and passing out on the floor."

Next Shandra said, "This next one is something everyone likes to eat. It has been a movie and a very popular song. It contains grenadine, vodka, sweet and sour mix, 7-Up, topped by Blue Curacao liqueur."

Stephanie leaned over toward Oshanna, "American Pie," and Oshanna's hand went up. The drink was placed in front of her as 'American Pie' blared over the sound system. She had a big smile and Julio came back over.

"I need another drink, I finished both of mine a while ago." He slurred at Stephanie as he sunk down across from her and next to me.

"Ok, tell me which one you want and I will see what I can do." He turned his chair around as his back was to Shandra and the bar and he wanted to see what was going on.

Shandra started again, "If you drink this next one you may have to salute it first for service to our country. It has Bacardi 151 and Jägermeister, mixed with a can of red bull." I knew this one, it was practically required to pass cold weather training. It had actually been invented by an Army Ranger and had been named just that. Most anyone in the Army knew this drink so I was surprised a bunch of hands weren't up. No one raised their hand at first, then one guy answered wrong, and a woman answered wrong. Stephanie's face lit up and her hand went up in the air.

"Army Ranger." She blurted out before Shandra could call on her. Shandra turned our way. "That is correct. Do you know someone in the armed services you can toast to while drinking this drink?"

"No," Stephanie slurred. "But I know an Army Ranger who is going to drink it." She turned to me and smiled a sloppy drunken smile and I looked at my watch. Forty minutes had passed. She had to make it twenty more minutes till dinner and I was afraid she was going to pass out right here at the table. Shandra brought the drink over and Stephanie pushed it in front of me. "Drink" she ordered and I obliged her by taking a sip. I wasn't too worried about drinking this because the red bull would amp me up to make up for any edge the alcohol took off me.

"This is almost the last drink of the night, only three left, but it is the strongest," Shandra started. "It is named after a very popular band that started in the sixties and is still popular today. They were known for their bumper stickers on the back of your parent's car. It has tequila, light rum, vodka, gin and raspberry liqueur."

"Pink Floyd" came one answer, "The Rolling Stones" came another. There were several more guesses and Stephanie leaned forward to Julio, "The Grateful Dead."

"They weren't around in the sixties." He said back to her.

"Trust me." She whispered back and he reluctantly raised his hand. "The Grateful Dead" he responded and Shandra smiled. "That is correct. You win the strongest drink of the night and you are lucky to be at the winningest table for the evening." She brought the drink over, asking if anyone else wanted to try the drink and several men and one woman raised their hands. Shandra continued passing out drinks as Julio turned around.

"Now everyone has a drink, we need to make a toast." Oshanna said lifting up her glass. "To our grand tropical adventure, may we stay safe and have lots of fun." She raised her glass to the middle of the table and Stephanie and Julio raised their glasses and clinked then they all looked at me. I raised my glass and clinked even as I was doing a mental eye roll that would have made Stephanie proud. This is not how I wanted to spend my evening with Stephanie, but she seems to like my siblings and I was accepting that to spend time with her would mean spending time with them.

We were all working on our drinks ten minutes later as Shandra stood in front of the room again. "I want to thank everyone for coming and playing 'Guess That Drink' with us tonight. Don't forget to tip us - your bartenders, cause we work hard up here and everyone that ran a tab can settle up before you go off to dinner. Welcome to Blue Island Cruises, we hope you continue to enjoy your evening and this cruise. Come back after dinner for drinks and dancing till three am right here in the Blue Lagoon Lounge."

I sipped at my drink, not wanting to drink too much of it because the red bull would keep me up all night and Stephanie didn't look like she was going to be in any shape to make that worth my while. I reached into my wallet and pulled out a fifty, placing it on the center of the table knowing Stephanie wouldn't have much cash on her and that my cheapskate siblings wouldn't tip for free drinks.

"The drinks are free bro." Julio told me.

"That's for their tip." I explained.

"You can't tip them fifty dollars for free drinks!" Julio responded and reached in his wallet, pulled out a twenty and laid it next to the fifty, then put his hand on the fifty and started dragging it back. My hand shot out lightning fast pinning his to the table.

"If you want to add your tip to mine that's great but hands off my money," I growled as I began to squeeze his hand painfully. "Or I will make it impossible for you to participate in your personal, private, bedroom activities for a few days." I squeezed his hand harder letting him know I was serious and wasn't going to let go. He dropped the money.

"Chill bro," He shook his hand and looked at the angry fingerprints left on his skin. "I was just joking, don't take everything so seriously." I reached over and took Stephanie's drink from in front of her. Half of it still remained but she was done, her eyes half closed already. I began drinking the rest of it and signaled Shandra.

"Hey bro, that was Stephanie's drink. Now you have to order another one for her."

"Stephanie's a light weight. If you can't tell she is about to pass out and I would like to get her back to the room before that happens." Shandra came over and I thanked her, giving her the fifty and the twenty much to Julio's dismay, and pulled Stephanie to her feet. I nodded at Lester as we passed and led her out of the room.

I half walked, half dragged her back to our room and never felt more like a rat in a maze as we walked down different lean corridors, winding our way through several floors before getting to our hall. I got Stephanie in our room and she flopped on the bottom of the bed laying face up, knees bent, feet still firmly on the floor.

"Babe? Are you going to be sick?" I asked her and she shook her head back and forth. I knelt down and took her sandals off. Then pulled her up to a seated position and began to undress her. I knew it would be easier to leave her dressed and just put her under the covers, but I wanted her naked. I was dying to curl up to her naked body and hold her. Well that wasn't exactly true. I wanted to do a lot more than hold her, but tonight it would be a start.

I finally got her undressed and under the covers, folding her clothes and putting them on top of the gym bag. I hesitated. I could get Marc to come stand guard while I went and had dinner with my family and then we could switch, or after the two partial drinks I had I could climb in bed next to her and call it a night.

Honestly, I'd had enough of interacting and making polite conversation with my family today and I wasn't all that hungry for food. I have been short on sleep for several nights now and the alcohol I drank was overcoming the Red Bull. I texted Marc to eat and then come guard the door and to let my parents know Stephanie had too much to drink so we were going to bed. I took a quick shower and when I got out checked my phone for all the hourly check-in's that everyone was at dinner. I texted all my men to report to Marc for the rest of the evening and that I would see everyone in the gym in the morning.

I climbed under the covers and pulled Stephanie over to me. I turned her on her side facing away from me and tucked her against my body. My body responded instantly to her soft warmth and I kissed the side of her neck. I desired her physically more than ever before but now that I had decided to have her forever I could be patient and satisfied with just holding her. This was where I wanted her, in my life, in my arms every night starting today. Now I just had to convince her of this.

To be continued…

A/N: Thank you! Thank you! Thank you all for your reviews! They are all loved and appreciated. I have one more bonus chapter tomorrow then it is going to go to weekly updates.

As always big THANK YOU to my beta Sassysaint who makes my story's more readable. You are AWESOME! THANK YOU! Wouldn't be here without you!

Second Big THANK YOU to my sister, Jonelle. Who is giving my stories a thorough technical analysis (ie deep proof reading) giving me some great suggestions and fixing all my commas, apostrophes and all my many other little mistakes. THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

Did you ever imagine what else Steph learned in college other than liberal arts? I've always wanted to hear her boyfriend exploits during her younger years between Morelli and Dickie. Big thanks to the website .com for all the drink information. I knew a few of these but never could have done this chapter without the help. Please read and review.

Trenton Merry Men Assignments (20 Men)

Abuela Sanja – Vince

Abuela Rosa – Manuel

Maria – Erik

Leyla – Hal

Angelia – Woody

Isabella – Cal

Oshanna – Lester

Rachel – Eddie

Julie – Junior

Stephanie – Ranger, Marc

Extras – Bobby, Ram, Zero, Zip

Night's – Chester, Chet, Gino, Mario, Ramon, Ryan


	12. Chapter 12 Fun on the Ship

Chapter 12 – Fun on the Ship

I climbed under the covers, and pulled her over to me. I turned her on her side facing away from me and tucked her against my body. My body responded instantly to her soft warmth and I kissed the side of her neck. I desired her physically more than ever before but now that I had decided to have her forever I could be patient and satisfied with just holding her. This was where I wanted her, in my life, in my arms every night starting today. Now I just had to convince her of this.

Saturday April 16

I woke up very alert when my watch beeped at 05:00 feeling fully rested and ready to face my family and the day. I got dressed in black shorts and a black RangeMan shirt for the gym and was very surprised when I found it. I knew that the ship held over 2500 passengers, but an expansive room with a long row of treadmills followed by a row of bikes, several ellipticals, and three rowing machines, standing apart from a selection of work out machines and a separate room of free weights exceeded my expectations.

Three of my men were already here working out on machines and free weights. Knowing half of my men were sharing queen size beds made me wonder if they had slept well. Being in the armed forces, like everyone on this trip had been, left one with the ability to sleep anywhere. But they, like me, were getting older and the body appreciated more comfort than when we were kids.

I got on the treadmill first to warm up and did five miles. Today would be my normal day for back and quads, but knowing there was no workout room on the island I wanted to hit my arms and chest more. I worked my chest out on several machines because it was faster than manually loading up a bar with free weights. After I did my arms in the free weight area I got on the floor and did one hundred sit ups and 100 push-ups. I wasn't really building any muscle but I was maintaining my pump and getting ready to face the day.

When I was done it was 06:40 and I knew Tank wasn't at his desk yet and didn't want to bother him knowing if anything concrete was found he would notify me immediately.

The ship started serving a breakfast buffet at 05:30, but they had one restaurant that was open twenty-four hours a day and I was betting would have French fries and coke. So, I went to the See-Food Café and ordered. Fifteen minutes later I gave the waitress a big smile for a tray, a small bottle of ketchup, salt and a promise that I would bring the dishes back later. In my adult life, I have always had a way with women and knew that my smile and a flex of my arms or chest could get me almost anything I wanted.

When I got back to the room it was almost seven and I wasn't sure as early as she went to bed when Stephanie would wake up. The night shift men were still on duty, and I nodded to them as I passed with my tray of fries and coke.

I unlocked the room and quietly closed the door. I repeated my actions from two days prior, this time talking quietly as I shook her. She groaned and pulled her pillow over her face smashing the fry I had been holding there.

"Stephanie, I have hot fries here but they won't stay hot very long." The pillow inched upwards exposing her mouth and nose, which sniffed. A wild hand came at me opening and closing, grabbing the air. I pressed one fry into it and she wormed it into her mouth.

Her wild hand came back around grasping as it searched for more fries. I caught her hand and laid it down to her side and put a fry up to her lips. They quickly opened, I stuck it in and she chewed. Now her mouth opened again repeating the begging baby bird routine and I fed her another fry. Several fries later I began talking to her again. "Babe, I have some coke here with a straw but no lid. You're going to have to sit up to drink it." Slowly the pillow moved off her face and a bloodshot eye cracked open. Then she sighed and pushed up on her elbows. "All the way up babe. The cup is full and it will spill if you tilt it."

She pushed up with her hands and opened her eyes more fully. Gasping when she realized she was naked and clutched the sheet to her breasts with her right hand. I put the extra-large coke, I had whittled out of the waitress, in her other hand and she drank from it deeply like a fawn that found a fresh water spring after searching for days, then she put it on the tray and reached for more fries. "Ketchup?" I turned the plate around where I had squirted a large dollop of ketchup and she mashed her fries into it. I set the whole tray on her lap.

"Got to take a shower Babe." And with that I got off the bed, and disappeared into a bathroom that was less than a quarter of the size of my closet.

Ten minutes later I left the bathroom with a small towel that had been folded and held on a metal shelf above the toilet, perched precariously around my hips. I bent over to get clothes out of my bag and the tiny terrycloth lost its battle and slid to the floor. I was already aware of Stephanie's eyes on me so I turned clothes in hand and gave her a full view of the goods. She was still staring at me as expected, and her tongue darted out and she licked her perfect pink lips. I physically reacted and she gasped again as I dropped my clothes on the bed and began getting dressed.

"We didn't…you didn't…I mean last night, well I'm naked." She stammered.

"Babe, you will always be coherent and interactive when we engage in those kinds of activities." I told her as I buttoned my pants and slid on my shirt. I bent down without warning and gave her a kiss on her sweet salty lips. I licked her lips and put my hand behind her head pulling her closer as I delved inside her mouth. Our tongues touched and a moan came from somewhere deep inside her. I stroked her tongue, teased her mouth, explored every inch making love to her with my mouth and then I slowly pulled back and looked deep into her brilliant blue, red rimmed, eyes.

"Good morning babe." I told her and she blushed. "Time for your shower." I said lifting the brown plastic tray off her lap.

"You have to leave. I'm naked."

"I'm the one that got you naked and put away your clothes. I wasn't sure what to do with them so I put them on top of your gym bag." I told her as I sat on the bed to put on my boots.

"You still have to leave I'm not walking around the room here naked."

"Babe you're already naked, you're going to have to walk to the bathroom naked unless you take the blanket with you."

"Naked in front of you! I can't walk around naked in front of you." She exclaimed exasperated.

"All right, I am leaving." I left the room with the empty tray in hand to find Marc standing outside my door.

"Report"

"Interesting night, your parents are already at the breakfast buffet on seven. I sent Ramon with them until Erik came online. Oshanna finally called it a night around three. She had some man she picked up at the bar she and Julio were at. Lester gave him a deterring look and sent him on his way, upsetting Oshanna. Lester told her she had to have your permission for something like that and it took him, Mario and Ryan to keep her from knocking on your door or waking up the whole hall. Lester texted that he is sleeping in since he didn't get to bed till well after 03:30."

"Fortunately, that means she will sleep late. I want hourly reports from everyone till we leave the ship. Have Zip cover for Lester till he is back on duty. Steph is in the shower. I don't know what she is going to want to do today but she has a salon appointment at 1:00. I will be with her all day and text you if I need coverage." I handed him the tray. "Would you return all of this to the See-Food café?" He nodded, took the tray and walked off.

I had an email from Tank, there were a lot of possibilities but no solid leads. ' _Foreigner sightings all over Trenton and Newark but nothing was turning up positive for our bad guys. No more information on the rented airplane. The hotel had been paid in cash with no ID given, but when the men went back they found a signature of a Joseph Johnson. They are researching the name and found several Joseph Johnsons that flew into the US in the past two weeks, but one specifically flew in from France into LaGuardia on Sunday. Still waiting on picture confirmation to see if it matches any of our identified bad guys._ '

Twenty minutes later we were headed to the dining room for breakfast. Stephanie was casual but breezy in jeans shorts, a white button up shirt and white sandals. I was pleased to see my men at two separate tables getting a chance for a sit-down meal. In security work, you have to scrounge meals when you can, not always getting to eat when the targets do. This assignment couldn't go that way because there was only one man to each target. If needed the four extra men could spell them for meals, but it made it much easier and efficient when they could eat with the families.

Stephanie ordered coffee for both of us, then got an omelet with cheese, bacon, and ham. She also got a side of hash browns and toast and I got an egg white omelet with spinach, red peppers, asparagus, broccoli, onions, mushrooms and tomatoes, topped with fresh sliced avocado. I liked that the vegetable options were very abundant on the ship. Most of my family was here getting breakfast already and the kids were excited with the options of chocolate chip pancakes, French toast, eggs, bacon and chocolate milk for breakfast. I was really pleased to see Becky, Maggie and Julie sitting together to eat. They were close in age and I was hoping this trip would give Julie a chance to get to know her cousins better since they grew up so far apart.

Leyla, Isabella and Rachel were all sitting at different round eight-person tables with their families, ship schedules in hand, pencils scribbling wildly, determining which kid wanted to do what, and how many activities could be fit in for the day. It touched me, and I think that this summer when the kids are out of school I should bring my family back for a cruise where we could all just have fun and not be worried about safety. Angelia looked like she was struggling just to get her kids to eat what was ordered and get some breakfast in herself as well. I turned to Stephanie.

"So, Babe, what do you want to do this morning?"

"Well, neither Oshanna or Julio are answering my texts. I don't have any specific plans I just want to have some fun."

"Oshanna and Julio are night owls and probably stayed up until dawn so don't expect them to be up any time soon. I brought the ship schedule with me so we could look at it." I pulled out a double-sided piece of paper that had been delivered to the cabin this morning with a pencil and laid them out in-front of her.

She looked it over. "There is a free facial workshop at noon that sounds like fun and Oshanna and Angelia would probably go with me… there are all kinds of seminars and games, miniature golf and a rope course, but really we are here with your family. Your nieces and nephews are really cute and I would like to get to know them a little better, and Julie; I would like to spend more time with Julie." I got her up and led her over to the table with Rachel and Ron.

"So, what are your plans for the day? We would like to spend some time with you guys and with Julie." I asked them.

"Well we are having a little trouble deciding. All the kids want to do different things except for family dodgeball at 10."

I stood up. "How about we get all the adults at one table and then we can decide what activities we can all fit in for the day."

Isabella and Diego, Leyla and Richard came over to our table and Rachel moved the eating kids to another table. Talk went up all around the group with what kids wanted to do what and it became clear that the boys and girls had different activities in mind and the different age groups also wanted to do different things.

"I have a crazy idea, why don't we split the kids up by age group and each set of parents can each take one group. That way the kids could get to know each other better. I mean like Julie, Becky, and Maggie; Freddie, Chris, Ricky; Shylia, Cassie, Shanna, Mikie; then Parker and Ricky. Stephanie and I would be willing to take the older girls, I would like to spend more time with Julie."

"That might work," Leyla said, "but Mikie is going to have to go with the boys. He maybe younger but he will not go play with all the girls. He is used to playing with Ricky and Chris."

Discussion started fervently again with the parents organizing the activities that each kid wanted and agreeing that many of the kids the same age had picked the same activities and that the boys all wanted to do the same things.

Diego and Richard offered to take all four boys, while Leyla and Rachel wanted to be sure I could handle the three pre-teen girls. I could put regiments of armies in the field and secure hundreds of accounts certainly I could entertain a few girls for a few hours, especially with Stephanie's help. She had two nieces, after all, that she occasionally watches.

"Is that Ok with you Babe taking the three girls?"

"Sure, hand me the schedule again and let's go sit by them and see what they want to do."

The girls were excited to get time to spend together scooting closer to Stephanie's chair so they could all see together. "I want to go do the facial thing at noon," she told them and they all agreed that sounded like fun.

They kept picking out different activities and I realized my error in judgement in taking all the girls after fifteen minutes here is the list of activities they all agreed upon.

8:00 Make your own jewelry

9:00 Zumba dance class

10:00 Family dodge ball

11:00 Ice cream sundae party – make your own

11:30 T-shirt decorating

12:00 Facial class

12:30 Make over class

1:00 Stephanie salon

1:30 Julie salon

2:00 Scavenger hunt

3:00 Battle of the ages

4:00 Game room/ Dance Dance Fever II

"You girls didn't plan any time for lunch." I noticed.

"Uncle Carlos, there are lots of buffets all over the ship. We will just run by one and grab a sandwich or something." Maggie told me and the other girls nodded in agreement.

I looked over the schedule again and reminded myself I was just the bodyguard for the day and could withstand days of torture, I could handle a few hours of girl time, especially because I would be spending it with my favorite two girls. The boys I overheard were doing the rope course, the rock climbing wall, family dodge ball, the gaming room, basketball, the Nintendo hall and the laser course. I love Julie to death, but I think if I have more kids I might have more in common with a boy. Considering the current danger my family was in the thought of more kids is something I can't even consider.

We said goodbye to the families after getting special permission from Leyla and Richard for the girls to have make overs as they weren't allowed to wear makeup, besides lip gloss, till they were fourteen. Stephanie argued convincingly that this was really a class about what colors to wear and how to wear them and that it was good for any girl to know and I, never paying much attention to makeup had to agree. Junior had been standing several feet from the table and I texted him that Julie would be with me for the day but to follow and watch our backs.

We were a few minutes late to the make your own jewelry class as we first went to the wrong floor. But the teacher Bethany welcomed us warmly and showed us each to a station. The gist was simple you put little decorative things in a plastic mold, then the mold was filled with resin and baked and voila you had a piece of jewelry. I watched each of the girls get excited and started making charms for necklaces. I knew immediately what I wanted was a ring for Stephanie. What you really made was an oval "gem" that was then glued onto a metal ring.

This was simple for me. I walked around the different stations picking out exactly what I would need, several miniature hearts, the miniature word love, some shining multi-colored sparkling bits, then I got the resin syringe from one of the assistants and turned my creation over to get cooked. I picked out a ring that had filigree carvings up and down each side and was the size six that would match Stephanie's ring finger. Then it dawned on me that I better make something for Julie and probably Becky and Maggie too.

So, I walked along some unmanned work stations and gathered up all the earing molds. I would make some for Stephanie too, and a necklace for Stephanie. I quickly went to work making multi-color creations for each of my girls, putting hearts in all of Stephanie's, using shining blue for Julie because I know that is her favorite color and looking over Becky and Maggie's shoulder to see what they were making so I could coordinate.

When I requested two tubes of resin the helper thought I was going mad, but I showed her the many molds and told her I was making something for each of my girls she got on board, helping me fill all the molds and cooking them for me. While they cooked and cooled I realized time was running out. I got four pairs of earing hooks to glue them to and one necklace chain for Stephanie.

The girls had all made necklaces and bracelets where they made charms for each other and added them to the chains. I presented all the girls with the earrings I had made as Stephanie watched and then I turned to her.

"Stephanie, you don't wear much jewelry, but I would appreciate it if you would accept these from me. The earrings were multicolored and in the shape of hearts, with little red hearts within them. The necklace chain was a duplicate because she had joined in with the girls all making charms for each other but again mine was in the shape of a heart and I added my charm to all of hers. Knowing that in the future I would buy her a real gold chain to put it on.

Then I took her left hand. "Babe, made something special for you." I told her and I slid the ring from my pocket and put it on her fourth finger as all the girls watched and ooohed and she was speechless. I leaned forward. "I love you, Babe." Then I kissed her lightly on the lips and backed off as the audience was glued to us. She just stared at it speechless.

"Time for Zumba." I distracted everyone and we walked out of the room collecting Junior as we went. I got the girls to the class just a few minutes late and took up position outside the door with Junior. A few minutes later Julie was standing there in her socks, jean shorts and a blue t-shirt with seven emojis, one for each day of the week on it. Friday's emoji had hearts for eyes and a big smile; she stood there trying to get me to join them. "Julie, this is not for me."

"Come on dad, it will be fun. You can stand in the back of the class where no one can see you. Besides it's like doing military drills to music. You can do it. I know you know how to dance."

"Darling I got up at five am and worked out already today. This is for you girls to work off that big breakfast you just ate and the ice cream sundaes that are coming."

"But Dad, you said you would come do things with us today." She pleaded.

"Jewels, you know I love you and I would do anything for you that you needed. Trust me, you don't want to see me doing this."

"Yeah Dad I would. It would give us all something to laugh at." And she cracked up a little bit unable to control herself.

"Go have fun Darling. I'll be right here." I told her and she finally disappeared back into the room where I could hear the pounding music play.

The class got over at 9:50 to give everyone a chance to put their shoes back on and make it to their next class. We headed down to the main gym to find half of the family already there, except Leyla and Isabella, who had taken turns with Rachel and Ron for the little girls and now had the next two hours for themselves. Ron and Rachel decided that this was too aggressive for the little girls and left but my parents were getting ready to play and both my grandmothers were here to watch the fun.

The gym was a regular basketball gym with the lines of a basketball court on the floor and two basketball hoops on each end. The game was played sideways across the gym, everyone lined up against the white walls, so that there was a shorter playing field and fewer balls would escape. We heard the rules and were divided into teams. I gathered my girls together to work out a strategy.

"Ok get a ball as soon as you can and use it to defend against incoming balls. Then when you get an opening aim at their legs and feet. It is harder to knock a ball away that is that low." I held out my hand so they could all stack on top of it and yelled "Go Team. "

The play was fast and furious but the girls were actually good at getting balls and using them to knock away incoming shots. They played aggressively against their little brothers ignoring the other participants that were in the gym to their demise. Maggie got out first with her pink shorts and matching patterned pink shirt, then Becky also got out walking away in jeans shorts and a grey shirt with lots of cool graphics and the words Nike. Stephanie was doing well at getting balls and had even gotten a few people out, but I realized part of her strategy was to stand beside me but one foot back behind me and use me as a shield when balls came her way.

I was gentle with the younger boys in the family but as they quickly got out, I started targeting the older boys that were taking out my girls. Julie was fierce, catching balls and aiming at the opponents across from us. The play started to get faster as there were more balls than people playing and two teenage boys across from us were slowly picking off everyone on our side so I targeted them and quickly got both of them out. One of my balls got returned and almost took Julie out, but she managed to catch it instead. Next her neighbor got hit, leaving only five people left along our wall. Stephanie still hiding behind me.

I kept taking out our opponents until just two boys remained who were not even able to throw the balls all the way across with any power or aim and I quickly took them out. It left four of us along our wall the winners and I turned to Julie and we gave each other celebratory high fives. I turned to Stephanie with a hand out for a high five, then I pulled her in and hugged her. Then in front of my whole family I kissed her like there was no tomorrow for just a quick minute tasting her lips and exploring her mouth and then I let her go.

I was wearing her down knowing she wouldn't struggle in front of my family. Not that she ever really stopped me from kissing her. It is the horizontal Mambo that I was working her up towards and I knew she was going to be in my bed every night for this trip and it was my personal goal to wear her down before I had to leave to take out Sergio.

After congratulations were given, we told the rest of the family we were going to the 'Make your own sundae' ice cream party and invited anyone that wanted to come. The boys all agreed that they wanted to and it was brought up by my mom that lunch was in an hour. When all the girls turned their pouty faces at me and Julie said 'please' I understood for the first time how I affect Stephanie that she can never say no to me when I say please. I doubled down on my efforts and I pointed out that the girls had appointments till two and this would hold them over till they could have lunch, besides we were on vacation and should be having fun. My mom gave me a disapproving look but said nothing else.

The ice cream party was a buffet line where everyone started with two scoops of their favorite kind of ice cream and then there was a line of toppings that just added sugar to sugar, with caramel, butterscotch, chocolate, hot fudge, and strawberry sauce. There were sprinkles in different shapes, colors and flavors along with gummy worms and bits from different candy bars. Finally the line ended with spray whipped cream and maraschino cherries.

The girls piled toppings on and I thought they were bad till I saw the boys had as many toppings on top as they had ice cream in their over-flowing bowls. I dodged everyone offering me bites and subverted a full out ice cream fight. Chris claiming, he was aiming at one of the other boys, shot a maraschino cherry across the table and hit Becky, who immediately returned fire and several cherries flew back and forth before I stopped it from escalating.

Now the girls were hopped up on sugar and I thought another physical activity to burn it off would be preferred but it was time for t-shirt decorating. The girls led the way back to the same craft room we had done the jewelry in. As we came through the door we were given a t-shirt, between every three stations was a group of fabric paints in every color of the rainbow and on the main bar there were neon and glow in the dark paints.

I declined a shirt when I came in the room certain they didn't have one my size, but Stephanie followed me in and handed me a shirt with a pointed look telling me I was not just going to watch this exercise. The shirts were white with a picture of our ship The Retreat on the back with Blue Island Cruise Lines in big letters underneath, so really, we were just walking advertisements.

The first step was to put a piece of cardboard in the shirt that held it flat and still, but my shirt was so large the cardboard only covered the main area. Personally, I would have liked to paint it an army camo color, but that would take too long and take up too much paint, plus the greens they had were different variations of spring green, and there was no tan. I wanted to make it into a night shirt for Stephanie, because I knew she liked to sleep in my shirts, but that was after I had been wearing them and they smelled like me. On the island I might like something that wasn't black so what could I put on this shirt that I might wear?

I thought about Ella's design for RangeMan and writing RangeMan on the shirt with a gun so it could be an unofficial uniform. I picked up the red and drew the RangeMan logo with an oversized R. Then I got the black paint and turned the R into a handgun with a little gold bullet coming out.

I looked over at the girls happy with my design, and they were drawing different girly designs like you would see drawn on their school folders or book covers: hearts, flowers, cell phones, sun shining, butterflies and just random paint splotches. Julie had a soccer ball, because she played soccer and a flute because she was taking band in middle school. Becky had a goldfish in a bowl drawn on hers and she wrote Buddy underneath it. Maggie had a big heart, with multiple little hearts inside it. Then they all started signing each other's and I knew what I wanted.

I coated each girls hand in paint and had them make a handprint on my shirt and sign underneath it. Blue for Julie, green for Maggie, purple for Becky. Then I made Stephanie do it in red and laughed because she was squeamish about the paint being all swishy and gooey on her hand and I thought of all the times she came home covered in garbage and food and smiled to myself. I got her a paper towel to wipe the paint off with and then held her still.

"Babe will you do something for me?" She nodded. I took the red paint and started applying it to her lips and she jerked away.

"Babe, it's not going to hurt you. It's non-toxic. It will wash off. I just want you to kiss my shirt, so I can always have your lips on me." She looked at me skeptically. "I won't wear this shirt otherwise." She sighed, so I pulled out the big guns. "Please."

"I've never seen you wear a white shirt before." She told me skeptically.

"If you kiss it I will have to wear it. I promise on the island I will wear it."

"Promise you will wear it in Trenton. I want you to walk into the Bonds office wearing it." She smiled big at me.

"Ok kiss it a couple of times and sign it and I will wear it into the Bonds office." I told her and she puckered up. I painted the red on her lips and pointed to the spot over the heart and she rolled her eyes but kissed it there. Then I reapplied the red and stood back. She looked the shirt over for a moment and kissed right near the collar of the shirt. The third time she kissed it between Julie's and Becky's handprints. Then she kissed it below her handprint.

"One more time Babe." I told her and held up the red paint. She puckered her lips for me again and I wanted to kiss them. Right then I knew who I would wear this shirt for. I would wear it to the station to see Morelli, with his arm still in a cast and his woman, I mean my woman's lips all over me.

The last time she kissed down low on the right of the middle, just above where my pants would be. Bethany was coming around getting everyone who was done to lay their shirts out on one of the tables lining the front of the room and encouraging everyone else to finish.

I took Stephanie in my arms. "Now you can go and get your face cleaned professionally." I told her and took her hand. "Come on girls beautifying time." I handed Julie the ship map and held my arm up for them to lead the way.

The whole way there the girls were whispering to each other and giggling. I knew what was up when we arrived and Julie and Becky each took one of my hands and Maggie got behind me to push me inside. Not wanting a fight in the doorway, I let them get me five feet inside the large room where at least eight long rectangular tables were situated in a horseshoe, in front of every chair there was a mirror, a different colored headband and several sample size packets. In the center of the tables was a fabulously perky blond with too much make-up on.

"Come on in and take a seat." She encouraged everyone and then her eyes rested on me and she got a big I could eat you smile. "Come on in handsome." She said walking over to me. "I already have each station set up for a woman, but I have a fabulous line of skin care for men that will do wonders for your skin and take off years."

I froze like a deer in the woods scenting a hunter, there was no way I was going to be talked into this. Over the years Ella has bought me a couple of skin care products that I never use. I don't have anything against men using skin care products but there was no way in hell they were going to get me to put on one of those little headbands and do it in front of a room of women.

Suddenly I heard laughter behind me and recognized Angelia's shrill voice. I bent forward thinking of how I could extricate myself from these three determined girls.

"Thank you, ladies, for escorting me inside. Let me take you to your seats." I offered leading them over to a table. I pulled my hands free and dragged out chairs for the three of them. I helped each one get seated and pushed their chairs in for them before turning around to face my sisters, knowing that if Angelia was here, Oshanna would be here too.

"You going to get beautiful _hermano_?" Oshanna asked me teasingly.

"Just escorting all my ladies to their seats." I stuck my arm out for Stephanie to take and she looked at me skeptically but placed her hand in my elbow and I led her over to the tables and sat her down next to Becky. Isabella and Oshanna followed.

"Have fun ladies." I told them and bent to kiss Stephanie on the head. I exited the room like a skunk had just sprayed and went to find Junior, Lester and Woody who were right outside the door.

I know if my men were all standing here by themselves they would talk amongst themselves, but with me here they would normally stand here silent, staring at the walls. I need them to take this threat and detail seriously but I wanted to hear the night's details before I had to face Oshanna again so I turned to Lester. "I hear you had an exciting end to your night."

He smirked, "If you mean stopping your sister from getting laid, getting my ass chewed and then three of us stopping her from banging down your door, then yeah it was exciting. I never thought to clarify my duties. I just assumed tucking her in at night meant alone." Lester explained.

"You did the right thing. I've only heard rumors but family understanding is that she has a boyfriend back home. She may think that going off-line means it doesn't count if she screws someone else but she's been with him for over a year that I know of. It's something she would have regretted in the morning." I agreed.

"I had heard of the boyfriend rumor as well, just didn't know if it was past tense. Getting rid of the slime was easy once I explained that it was my job to escort her to her cabin and put her to bed. But she was screaming so loud I thought it was going to wake up the ship. Mario and I literally picked her up and carried her into her cabin and I threatened to undress her and put her to bed. That finally shut her up but I think she couldn't decide if that frightened her or if she wanted me to." Lester worried.

"Until the threat is over she sleeps alone." I told him.

"Well just so you know Julio took someone back to his little room. He peeled one off a pack and talked her into going away with him."

"I don't care what Julio does as long as it doesn't affect security. I am actually glad, it will make him more bearable on the island knowing he at least got some on the ship." We stood there for the rest of the time in silence the only thing breaking up the monotony was a few women leaving after the first half and a few showing up for the second. I texted Marc that I would need coverage from 13:00-13:30 while Stephanie was in the salon and stood there debating the activities for the afternoon. I decided that we could discuss them over lunch. I paid for me alone to have internet while on the ship so I decided to check my emails.

Surprisingly I had an email from Skylar that looked like it was forwarded from the cruise line. _'Sorry about this.'_ She wrote _. 'I just received this email this morning so they can't say you had prior warning_ _. It_ _includes the departure instructions which were to put all your luggage outside your cabins by seven this morning and meet in the Double Down lounge at ten for processing off the ship.'_

I replied immediately, _'I'll_ _work it out. It is better for the family because everyone wanted to stay on the ship today to explore and take advantage of their many activities. Thank you, Wonder Woman, you are spectacular and do fabulous things for us.'_

I opened the link and scanned through the email. I would have to talk to the ship's steward to work this out but unfortunately the only numbers provided by the ship were extensions you had to dial from your room. I was going to wait for a little while to call the steward. Knowing the longer I waited to deal with it the longer we could stay on the ship. All the women had their salon appointments that would last till about four so we weren't leaving before then. We had already rented all the cabins on the island, I could line the walkway with my armed men it's not like they could stop us from getting off the boat. But if they haven't stocked the island and we didn't have food that could be a problem. I could fly food from the mainland, but really, we could stay on the boat for the five days and get off on the island on our way back.

I had another email from Tank. _'Photo ID on Joseph Johnson is a 43yr old white guy from Pennsylvania. Divorced with three kids traveling on business.'_

At five till one the women started pouring out. Oshanna, Angelia, Stephanie and the girls made up like it was Friday night and they were hitting the town. I looked closer and saw that each eye and cheek had different colors on them as they had tried out all the options. I took a deep breath hoping I could get the girls to wipe some of it off before we ran into Leyla and Richard.

We all headed a few doors down to the salon. Oshanna and Stephanie checked in while Angelia tried to see if she could get in at the same time, but the third appointment was taken. She was told that if she waited they would see if they could work her in. Marc had been waiting outside the salon and with a nod to him I turned to the girls.

"We have half an hour till Julie has an appointment at the salon, do you girls want to go get lunch?"

"Well Uncle Carlos, we were talking and we want to get our nails done too." Becky said.

I shouldn't be shocked, but this thought had not crossed my mind. "Well let me check with your mother and then we will find times they can fit you in." I told them.

I texted Leyla: _'Julie has a 1:30 salon appointment to get her nails done. Maggie and Becky would also like to get their nails done. I wanted your permission before I made arrangements for them.'_

"So, what do you girls want to do for the next," I looked at my watch, "twenty-five minutes."

"Let's go walk the decks. We've been inside all day." Julie said.

"Yeah, there is a rope course that is supposed to be fun the boys were talking about."

I looked at the map again and found that the rope course was on Deck 3. For the next few minutes, we walked and I listened to the girls talk, a touch of me missing having one on one conversation with Julie but most of me enthralled at the girl talk I would never before been privy to.

"Well Janice, that girl in my math and science class. She was, um, like challenging me" Julie was walking with Becky on one side and Maggie on the other telling her story. "She and Candice were like, 'You can't do that.' And 'I was like yes I can. My girl Jade and I can do anything,'

"Really?" Becky was enraptured by Julie's story.

"Yeah, we've been playing since third grade. So, we got my soccer ball out of my locker and like at lunch started in the back of the room kicking it back and forth between tables while they watched and got like almost to the front of the cafeteria when Mr. Baldsworth came over asking what we were doing and we told him it fell down and, well we told him it fell and we were like trying to pick it up like in soccer camp without using our hands."

"and he really bought it?" Maggie asked.

"Well, not really, he is a very strict teacher who will write you up for anything. I had him last year for English and he was so strict I got a C and had to work double hard and redo two assignments so I could keep my A. Um, so anyway, he wrote us a warning slip and sent us up to the office to talk to the principal. But the principal was in a meeting and after waiting for an hour we had missed one class and were going to be late for our next class so I asked the receptionist if we could make an appointment with the principal and she didn't know what we were up there for and made the appointment with my guidance counselor and told me I had to talk to her first before I made an appointment with the principal."

"No way!? Didn't you have a note from that teacher?" Becky asked.

"Yes, but like when we came in I just told the receptionist that we like needed to see the principal and she was like on the phone so she was like pointing to the waiting chairs. She never asked us why. So, three days later I had my appointment with the counselor and I gave her the paper from um, Mr. Baldsworth, and told her I dropped my ball and some kid kicked it back to me so he wrote me up. And she was like well you know you should have walked over there and picked it up and I was like well I know but I didn't really get a chance, and she signed my paper and let me off with a warning that my soccer ball should stay in my locker during school."

"Man, you are so lucky. I've never been sent to the principal's office but two of the boys in our room are like so disruptive they get sent up like every week and the next hour they are back in class and like nothing ever changes. I know they like keep getting detention and occasionally one-day suspensions, like for the day they were flicking rubber bands back and forth in class and hit Margery in the eye and it swelled up and she like had to go to the clinic. But they have been a problem like since sixth grade and they never seem to get any better." Becky said.

"Well like the best part was that I missed math both times and Mrs. Gregory was so nice I told her I didn't understand the homework because I missed class and she told me not to worry about it and didn't make me do it." Julie told them.

I kept listening as we got up on deck and could see the island we were parked in front of. About three hundred feet from shore there is the heavy wooden dock built for a ship, and off of it a small lined walkway that goes to the white sandy beach. There is a check-in shack that monitors everyone on and off the island for the day. Then it is just a sandy trail through the palmetto and palm trees with a bunch of wild grapes growing on everything.

I brought my mind back to the lounge chair covered deck that narrowed into a walkway to the back of the ship, and the bright sun and slightly cloudy sky that looked like it might think about rain this afternoon. The girls were talking about what a pain boys are and they were swapping pain in the butt brother stories. I know I want her to grow up, have a good marriage and kids but a father's greatest wish is that his daughter will think boys are gross and a pain until they turn thirty.

I know how I treated women over my lifetime and while I was a thrill in bed, never had complaints and always had them coming back for more, I never gave them the relationships they desired. I certainly didn't give them the emotional intimacy that most women crave. Now I have found the one woman for me, want to make a commitment to her and… I didn't know where she stood, it's been almost three days had her feelings changed? Is she getting worn down? Is she ready for a relationship with me? I wondered.

At thirteen thirty, after twenty minutes of sky climbing finished by zip lining back down onto the deck. I deposited all three girls at the salon, with sandwiches we grabbed off the deck cart. Stephanie was only half way done with her process. I left her with a turkey and cheese. She agreed to wait in the salon till all the girls were done and escort them to lunch. It took me twenty minutes to track down and get an appointment with the Steward and explained that I was in charge of the group and the situation.

He told me he was very sorry but our luggage had not been scanned and our passports processed, but admitted that all the food and personnel had been taken to the Island this morning, since they had to be in place to fix lunch for everyone on the island. I demanded to talk to the captain.

I explained that we were guarding ten women whose lives have been threatened and if we stayed on the ship I was going to have to arm my men. He became adamant that passengers have to be processed and off loaded in the morning and I was getting calmer and more determined with every word. There was a plan in place and I was coolly going to bend his jelly spine to my iron will.

To be continued…

A/N: Thank you! Thank you! Thank you all for your reviews! They are all loved and appreciated. This is your bonus chapter and the end of daily updates. When I started this story, I was going to write the whole thing before I started posting any of it. But with some encouragement I decided to start posting now and write one chapter a week. So starting Monday it is going to go to weekly updates. I can't promise to always post on Mondays but that will be my goal. Wish me luck. ; p

As always big THANK YOU to my beta Sassysaint who makes my stories more readable. You are AWESOME! THANK YOU! Couldn't do it without you!

Second Big THANK YOU to my sister, Jonelle. Who is giving my stories a thorough technical analysis (ie deep proof reading) Thank you for offering great suggestions and fixing all my comma's, apostrophes, and all my many other little mistakes.

A/N I hope you had fun with the girls on the cruise today. Cruises are so much fun they always have a ton of stuff to do on-board plus the destinations. I wanted to show the family having fun and pulled up several cruise line activities sheets on multiple websites so I could see what kind of activities were current. I really wanted to write Ranger really participating with all the girl's activities today. Getting down with Zumba, or putting on one of those little headband things and cleansing his pores. He crossed his arms and said no way in hell. Although he did mention if he was in Julie's room he might let her put some skin lotion on his face to have that father-daughter bonding moment but there was noooo way on this planet I could get him to put on one of those little headbands that push your hair back and do it in front of a room full of women, not to mention his group of men standing outside the door. But couldn't you just see Julie, Becky, and Maggie all standing in front of him making up his face. Bright blue eye shadow, red lipstick, bright pink blush. Trying to get him to hold still so they could apply mascara to his long black lashes. Sorry laughing so hard I can't keep typing. 😊 ; )

Ranger's Family Album

Mother's Mother – Abuela Rosa, Father's Mother – Abuela Sanja Manoso

Mother – Maria Father – Javier

Siblings and family in age order

Leyla (35) & Richard Gonzales– Rebecca (Becky) 12, Margaret (Maggie) 10, Richard (Ricky) 7, Michael (Mikie) 5

Angelia (34) & Jordan White – Shanna 5 – Kendrick (Ricky) 3

Ricardo Carlos Manoso (32)– Ranger

Julio Manoso (30) Ex Allysa – Jacob 2

Isabella (27) & Diego Diaz – Chris 8, Shylia 6, Parker 3

Oshanna Manoso (22)

Rachel & Ron – Julie 12, Fredrico (Freddie) 9, Cassandra (Cassie)6

Trenton Merry Men Assignments (20 Men)

Abuela Sanja – Vince

Abuela Rosa – Manuel

Maria – Erik

Leyla – Hal

Angelia – Woody

Isabella – Cal

Oshanna – Lester

Rachel – Eddie

Julie – Junior

Stephanie – Ranger, Marc

Extra's – Bobby, Ram, Zero, Zip

Night's – Chester, Chet, Gino, Mario, Ramon, Ryan


	13. Chapter 13 The Island

Chapter 13 The Island

Rated M earned again this chapter. Warning for smut.

Saturday May 13 afternoon

 _He told me he was very sorry but our luggage had not been scanned and our passports processed, but admitted that all the food and personnel had been taken to the Island this morning, since they had to be in place to fix lunch for everyone on the island. I demanded to talk to the captain._

 _I explained that we were guarding ten women whose lives have been threatened and if we stayed on the ship I was going to have to arm my men. He became adamant that passengers have to be processed and off loaded in the morning and I was getting calmer and more determined with every word. There was a plan in place and I was coolly going to bend his jelly spine to my iron will._

I questioned why no one had contacted us directly, stating that if I had not paid for the internet I would never have received the email with the instructions. Evenly explaining that the email should have been sent when we made the reservations for the island, long before boarding the ship. That there were forty-seven people that were supposed to depart and they should have realized when no one showed up that there was a breakdown in communication and again demanded to talk to the captain.

He called the captain and had a long conversation. When he was done he said that the captain said there was enough time. That we could gather all the luggage now and the group at four so we could be processed and offloaded at five. The captain said it would be easier than hauling a weeks' worth of food back on the boat and they wouldn't have to rescind payment for the use of the island.

I immediately sent text alerts for everyone to respond; that all luggage had to be immediately brought to the main atrium so it could be processed onto the island and that we as a group had to gather at four at the Double Down Lounge that was right off the main atrium, with our passports so that we could be processed. I texted all the women that if they were having salon appointments that my men would handle getting their bags.

Oshanna texted back that she couldn't leave at four because she had paid to play in a game show where the winner could win $5000 and it didn't get over till five. I texted Lester and told him to escort her to the Double Down Lounge at sixteen hundred and if he needed assistance carrying her to let me know.

They wouldn't give me a master key so I had each man assigned to someone in the nail salon take turns getting their key from them and gathering their luggage. I had the four extra day shift guys that had been 'on call' but able to do what they wanted go with Woody to get Angelia's eight bags and deliver them and then get all the on-duty men's bags delivered.

My night shift is required to have their phones on at all time and they slowly responded as they got up and got dressed for the day. After two days of shortened sleep I was going to make sure they got to sleep tomorrow without interruptions so they could continue to function efficiently.

Twenty minutes later I finished carrying Stephanie's and my bags and the box of electronics. I had texted everyone to stay with their guards, that we were all off line until we got onto the island. I was grateful that I had my men label every bag as they were scanned before we left Newark. The steward wanted to know who was in each cabana and I asked for a layout of the island so we could get them assigned. He was taken aback because, like ship cabins, they were usually assigned as they were rented.

There were twenty-four cabanas, separated into three horseshoes of eight. I looked at the break down of beds and, starting with the largest families, assigned rooms. Ship personnel started showing up and they put all the luggage through the same scanning machine that they were put through before they were brought on the ship. The purpose of this was lost on me as they had just scanned the bags yesterday and the only additional items that could have been added to the bags would have come from the gift shops on the ship. Still, it was their procedure and they couldn't skip it.

I took the chart and waited while the ship employees brought me bag after bag and I told them which cabana they went to. They all had master keys for the cabanas and I requested one and after a few minutes of haggling and some physical intimidation received one. I didn't know if I would ever need it but better to be prepared. I requested that the crates of guns be brought up and stowed in one of the extra cabanas.

I received a lot of blank looks and had to call the steward back, which took fifteen minutes, and remind him that when we boarded there were three crates that they didn't want to let us bring but I had permission so they put them somewhere below deck. He looked at me hard as he struggled to remember, then sent two men down to find them. All the luggage had been taken to the island when two men dragged one of the crates in.

Two of my men could easily carry one crate and I had never lifted one, but I reminded the steward that there was live ordinance in these crates and that they needed to be handled carefully and couldn't be dragged through the sand. If his men couldn't carry them, I would get some of my men to. The steward immediately got more men saying that none of my men would be allowed in that area of the ship and twenty minutes later the third crate was being off-loaded to a yellow Jeep with oversized wheels. This was obviously the only vehicle that could maneuver around the roadless island.

I told him that we had made t-shirts in the craft room that day and I needed to go get them. He called Bethany so I could describe the shirts to her and she was able to locate them and bring them down. I was actually looking forward to relaxing a little on the island and wearing the shirt that my girls had helped decorate.

At ten to four my parents and grandmothers arrived. Everyone else slowly straggled up and I got a text from Woody that they were again delayed in the bathroom, that Ricky still seemed to be in the stages of potty training and that they needed their luggage back in the room. I realized that the phones had linked to the island's AT&T tower and so were still working.

I texted Angelia that the luggage was already on the island and could not be brought back onto the ship. That she had to wash out what ever clothes were dirty and they would have to be worn wet for an hour until we could be processed and approved to exit the ship to our cabanas. My mother, hearing about the problem, left to go help Angelia.

Our group was processed by family then let off the ship and we were half way through the group before Angelia showed up, kids in tow. What I was thinking and finally got confirmed, is that since the island was registered as property of the cruise line it was still considered part of the US and the passport check was just a token gesture that the ship did for paperwork reasons.

The crew was simply checking each person's ID to the passport and the birth certificates of each kid, which Angelia didn't have because she packed them .They held her till last and finally waved her through with a stern warning, telling her they would be needed to get back into the states. It was a good first run for Leyla who was nervous until they waved her through and she realized how easy this was going to be.

Everyone took a little time getting settled into the cabanas before dinner at six. Of course, the first thing I did was set up the phones and internet and text everyone that we were all back online. With this computer set-up, even if one could track an IP and know they were live, they couldn't pinpoint where in the world they were broadcasting from and would likely still show each person's home address. Something for me to check with Hector. Stephanie was busy unpacking her bag, hanging up her dresses, putting her clothes in the dresser and lining up all of her shoes.

Our cabana was two rooms, a small living room and a larger bedroom. They were both decorated in seafoam green, tan, aqua and beige. The living room with a tan couch that had trees on it, with aqua curtains and rug covered in sea life, a glass coffee table and a forty-inch flat screen mounted on the wall. The bedroom had the same aqua rug, with beige rattan furniture at the foot and the sides of the bed, a tall five drawer dresser and a bamboo colored bedspread. The square walk-in closet was decently sized and the bathroom was standard white with seafoam green accents and tile.

As soon as I set up the electronics, I went out to rearm all my men, returning their handguns to them and passing out LMGs to everyone with 500 rounds. They only had to carry 100 rounds at a time, because my men wouldn't waste rounds shooting at nothing and were very accurate shots. I could have given them twenty rounds and felt secure but I am nothing if not always prepared for any eventuality. I told them they had till dinner to get settled and then I would give them permanent assignments.

The dining room was a large dark wood building, with big screened in windows that were all open and five long picnic style tables that would each seat about fifty people. The dining area was separated from the kitchen by four open coolers that were filled with drinks and food. One cooler was all water, the second cooler was assorted fruit drinks and whole, fat free, and chocolate milks. The next cooler was filled with prepackaged salads and sandwiches, and snack foods. The forth cooler currently was half full of whole banana's, apples, oranges, cheese sticks, peanut butter crackers and other snack foods. Next was a large stack of trays and a waist high rail to put them on, followed by plates, silverware and cups. Then was a serve yourself buffet. The buffet started with a large salad, the two types of chilled noodle salads, and a three-bean salad. Following was the hot food filled with bread sticks, spaghetti, lasagna, three cheese manicottis, stuffed shells, chicken marsala, chicken alfredo, penne pasta, and tortellini.

Dinner was a relaxed, forty-seven-person affair. Most everyone was hungry after the full day onboard and once everyone was seated they were too busy eating to cause problems. There was only one tray of each hot item so when Oshanna got upset because she was late and the lasagna was all gone there was nothing to do but tell her to eat the other options. My men loved it and ate until every tray was scraped clean.

I got ready to address my troops as soon as it looked like most of them were done eating. I have never had a security situation like this one. I needed my men to protect the island more than the individuals on days the ships were gone. The days ships were in port the opposite was true.

I nodded to my men to come outside for their briefing. All twenty men assembled and I gave them their orders: "We have made it to the island but we cannot assume that we are safe just that we are at least one step ahead of the subjects. Word is that five foreign nationals rented a mid-sized prop plane and left Newark in the middle of the night Thursday. The plane had filed no flight plan and their final destination is unknown. We cannot assume they didn't follow us to Florida, just that they probably don't know where we are right now.

"I'm sure we were detected leaving, and if they followed us to the airport they know what plane we got on. Since the plane is located in Miami they could spend days looking for us all over Florida. Eventually they might think we could take a cruise, but for them to find us on this island is remote and would probably take a few more days.

"Day shifts are still from 07:00 till 19:00 and night shifts 19:00 till 07:00. Everyone will carry the LSATs at all times on non-ship days with at least 100 rounds. Daytime, eight men on the perimeter, six on the interior, night time all six men on perimeter. Until the next ship anything in the sky and water is to be considered a threat. Report any sighting or auditory confirmation of any threat over the radio and cell. The island is approximately four miles long and two and a half wide, our radios broadcast up to sixteen miles over flat lands so there should be no problem using them as our main communication, but back up everything on cell. If Marc or I don't respond, repeat communications.

"Ship days are Tuesdays and Saturdays, regular detail, target stays in eyesight at all times. Tank will be monitoring all ship passengers and raising red flags when anyone or anything suspicious is coming our way. We know they have weapons they brought with them so consider them always armed and dangerous and that they can shoot a distance from a plane or boat.

"Bobby and Vince north end, Manuel and Junior south end, Hal and Cal east side you will overlap a little with Ram, but I want you moving while he is fixed, Zip and Zero West side. Interior posts are Lester at dining room, Woody at the game room, Marc at the first set of cabanas, Eric the second, and Eddie the third. Ram you are on the east beach where I expect most of the family will be swimming and playing. Vince and Bobby, be aware there are going to be people snorkeling over the reefs off the north end."

"It's going to be hot and hopefully boring, keep your eyes and ears peeled. Stay hydrated, take four to six bottles out on patrol, wear sunscreen and hats at all times. Meals, I will ask the kitchen to make the food and put it out for two hours, interior men eat lunch first then relieve the men on perimeter. Lester trade out with Vince and Bobby, Marc/Hal, Ram/Cal, Woody/Manuel and Junior, Eric/Zip, Eddie/Zero. Eat quickly and then go relieve them, eat quickly and return to post."

"Breakfast at 06:00 for day patrol, 07:00 for night patrol. Lunch starts at 12:00. 20:00 dinner for night patrol, 21:00 dinner for day patrol. Night Patrol: Mario, North end, Ramon, South end, Chet and Chester, West side, Gino and Ryan, East side. Rotating half hour lunches with Gino and Chet starting at 01:30, coverage rotates right taking that new position for the night. Dismissed." I watch my men disperse, most of them back to the dining room to finish eating or just clear their places.

As everyone was finishing and leaving I called the small kitchen staff together and discussed lunch options for the night shift. I explained that they would get up in time for dinner each night and they would still be up for breakfast but conferred about what assortment of food could be left in the coolers for them to eat in the middle of the night. I explained the need for two-hour meals and asked them to have half the food ready at six am and half the food ready at seven am. For dinner I needed half the food ready at six pm for the family and half my men, then the other half ready at seven pm for the rest of my men.

Only one kitchen staffer had a problem with it saying they weren't getting paid extra for all that extra work. I explained that this made their job easier so they didn't have to make all the food at once. I explained that I understood this meant getting up earlier for them and pulled out my wallet and gave them each thirty dollars for their trouble. This perked the last man up and got everyone cooperating.

After dinner, everyone retreated to the cabanas. I checked my emails but there was nothing new from Tank. The sun wouldn't set for another hour but everyone was tired after the busy day. I wanted to take a walk with Stephanie along the beach, preferably under the stars. The small part of me that wants her forever was anxious to propose but I needed to hear the words. She has told me she loves Joe and that he loves her but she has never told me that she loves me.

I was sitting on the bed, my laptop in front of me acting like I was checking emails, while I was really preparing my speech when she got up and headed to the door.

"Where are you going?" I asked her.

She showed me a text from Julio, _'Setting up volleyball, put your kids to bed and come play.'_ I noted that the text was sent to everyone, even both grandmas but not to me. I knew the island was going to be the hardest on Julio and Oshanna because none of their regular night life activities would be here, so while I was expecting a quiet night I wasn't surprised. The volleyball set and all the beach toys had been put in an extra cabana next to the crates and it had been left unlocked for easy access to the toys for the next day.

"Babe, wait for me to change and I will come with you." I told her and pulled out my bag. It was time, I told myself, to go into vacation mode for a few days. We made it to the island, everyone was safe. Now I needed that drink to unwind my natural control on all things and get into the island mood. This game was the first step.

I changed into black board shorts and the t-shirt from the ship and stared at my guns and knife. I had been planning on taking Stephanie for a romantic walk on the beach to watch the sunset and see the stars, maybe indulge in a few kisses. What I needed were covers for my personal gun because the past has proven I don't shoot blanks. I got two condoms out of my bag and looked at my guns again. I couldn't stand to not be armed so I tucked my smaller ankle gun into the back of my shorts and pulled my shirt down over it.

We walked out onto the beach to find Julio, Julie, Maggie, Becky, Oshanna, mama, papa, and both abuelas standing around in shorts and t-shirts while four of my men set up the volleyball net. They looked at me in surprise as I wore black board shorts and my newly decorated RangeMan t-shirt complete with kisses and handprints.

The teams were divided up between the young: Stephanie, Julio, Oshana, Julie, Becky and Maggie on one side; and the old: me, my parents and my abuelas. It really just happened because I was talking to my grandmas and making sure they were settling in ok and that their cabana would be fine for them. It was one of the few with twin beds, but if they wanted there were more available further from the family and they could each have their own cabana with a queen bed.

I hadn't asked them if they minded bunking together but when no fuss was made after they were paired in the hotel room I had continued to put them together. They always seemed to get along at the few family gatherings where both of them came, mostly at Christmas. Grandma Rosa now lived with my parents and Grandma Sanja would come to visit and stay with them in one of the many extra bedrooms. I was pleased that for this trip they didn't mind staying together.

The game was close, I dominated our side staying in the middle with my parents in the front and grandmas in the back. Half way through they realized that the back was our weakness and I knocked over Abuela Rosa as we both went for the same ball, so I requested a switch and put them in front of me where I could more easily see them and not run them over.

They were as good as Becky and Maggie, who were in the front for the other team and Julio took my stance in the middle. Half the game was us playing against the other trying to hit the ball to the weak members of the other's team. In the end, I saw how hard Julie and Stephanie were working to win and decided to miss a few balls and give the game to them, 10-13.

After the game, I gave everyone but Julio a high-five and congratulated them all on a good game and that we would get retribution tomorrow. Steph got a congratulatory kiss that went on and on as I plastered her body to mine. I was certain that my family thought we were back together, I had three days on a tropical island to make her mine and I was determined to make every minute count.

I took her hand and led her away from my dispersing family, we just walked hand in hand as the sun set in blazing oranges, reds, and purples across a darkening sky. The moon was already out, almost three-quarters full, a quarter way across the sky. The stars just came popping out filling the sky. The whole Milky Way was there, more stars than you could ever see anywhere in Jersey as there was no light pollution here. A cool breeze lightly blew the swaying palm trees. Everything was perfect and I pulled her into my arms.

"Babe, I have told you that I love you and that I have loved you for a long time. You have never said the words to me but I see glimpses of them in your eyes. Do you love me?...Even just a little?" I added at the end almost afraid of the answer.

"Ranger-"

"Carlos, on this trip, on this island, in our room, call me Carlos from now on."

She hesitated, "Carlos. I don't know what to tell you. I didn't break it off with Morelli before I left. I told him I would come back to him."

"I'm not asking for the status of your relationship, or the status of ours. I'm asking if you love me. We have known each other for several years. We have been through so much. I am asking if you have some feelings for me that go beyond friendship."

"You know I do." She said as she looked down at my chest.

"You do what?" I pushed her.

"I do love you." She hesitantly said. It was all I needed to hear, I pulled her close and held her to me, tilted up her head and delved into her sweet mouth. I stroked her slowly, thoughtfully, thoroughly, melding her body to mine knowing she could feel how hard I was, how much I needed her. I could take her right here on the sand, but sex in sand was messy, as we proved several times in Hawaii. Her hair had a way of soaking up so much sand that it takes more than several washings to get every last grain out.

"Come swimming with me." I suggested before pulling off my shirt, putting my gun on top of it and tugging her towards the water.

"I'll get my clothes all wet." She complained.

"Take off your clothes. You can fold them neatly and put them on my shirt to keep them out of the sand. Just swim in your underwear, it covers as much as your swimsuit does. In fact, the bra your wearing covers you more. No one can see you, no one is out here." I turned back to her and started unbuttoning her shirt and she grabbed my hands and stopped their progress.

"How do you know what bra I'm wearing? You were in the hallway when I got dressed." She huffed.

"Babe I helped you pack remember. I saw every pair of underwear you brought. Your shirt is white and I can see your light blue bra peeking out the top." And through the sheer material.

"Come on Babe. There is no one out here but me and you. Not even like Hawaii where random people could be walking down the beach. My family has all gone to bed. There is literally no one." I pulled her to me and started unbuttoning her shirt again, then I spun her around facing away from me and slowly pulled it down her arms. She immediately crossed her arms in front of her covering her bra.

"Babe, it's pitch black out here. No one can see you," I told her as I turned her back around and started undoing her shorts. We had kicked our shoes off for the volleyball game so it was simply a matter of sliding them down and getting her to step out of them. I folded them and placed them with her shirt on top of mine.

I turned around to see her facing the ocean and saw she was wearing the matching thong. I smiled to myself knowing this was my green light. In Hawaii, she had brought other underwear, but I knew she was trying to get my attention when she would wear one of her thongs and walk around mostly undressed. She knew it instantly made me hard and had me yearning for her body. I took her hand and walked her towards the water. Like our private beach in Hawaii, the water here was warm near the shore and I pulled her out to chest deep water and started swimming circles around her.

I knew that part of her was always going to want to be faithful to the cop, but another part of her wanted me, loved me. I just needed to bring her to the point of needing me. I have always known I could overcome her objections if I tried but most of the time if she resisted I let her push me away. Tonight, I wanted to push through her resistance, take any part of her mind off him and put it all on me.

She splashed me and sunk down in the water hiding the fact that she was wearing a bra and I smiled my full-on smile at her. I was going to have her tonight but I was going to take it so slow she would be begging for it, well at least the second time. Now I wanted her as much as I had that first fateful night of the deal. I had known that she wanted me for a while, but at that time was for some reason holding back and scared.

The deal had given me the permission she was too afraid to approve, I had taken her so fast the first time. I had needed so badly to be inside her and felt like I hadn't done my best work. I made it up to her that night again and again. My alarm had gone off at five but I couldn't leave her. I couldn't get enough so I dragged her into the shower with me.

Every time was better than the last, she was so responsive, so sweet like the first bite out of a juicy peach. With her it was like that first bite over and over again, it only got better each time. That morning she was still half asleep. I washed her so slowly and gently, kissing her in between body parts that it quickly had us both greedy for more. I ended up taking her in the shower, pinned against the wall, her arms tight around my shoulders as her hands clutched against my back. I fell hard as she surrounded me crying out in orgasm, convulsing around my dick.

I came in her like I had never in a woman before. Completely physically, completely emotionally, with my whole body and soul and I knew she felt it too. Felt me fall for her at that very moment. After we went back to bed again I watched her sleep, knowing that I would never be the same. I knew that I would never get enough of her but I also knew that my life was not safe enough for her. I made the decision then to send her away.

Not just to walk out of her life, but to install another man in it so it would distract anyone looking at her as a way to get to me. Now I was going to oust that substitute and install myself back into my rightful place. I knew taking her out of the state was always a good way to get her to sleep with me. To temporarily get her to break up with him. If she asked I would tell her that she can be with me for these two weeks and I wouldn't pressure her. But really, I was never going to let her go again.

I knew that off the north end of the island there was a reef that people snorkeled over during the day. Anywhere there was a reef there were sharks that feed on the fish. I was expecting this water to be filled with things that could bite but this close to shore we were much bigger than any fish that would be around here and any sharks swimming close would be scared away.

I kept swimming around her for several more minutes, kicking up the water and sand. I finished my swimming by coming up behind her. She was so perfect and whole standing right in front of me and I was hard, so hard, aching, needing to be inside of her again. I got within inches of her approaching her cautiously, slowly as if she were a butterfly that could fly away at any moment. I slowly lowered my head and kissed the side of her neck.

When she didn't immediately pull away, I wrapped my left arm around her stomach and moved up closer behind her pulling her to me. I kissed my way up the left side of her neck and she tilted her head away giving me full access. I got to the top where I opened my mouth and gently bit down and a small moan escaped her lips. I took her earlobe in my teeth and tugged on it.

***************SMUT***************

I wrapped my right arm around her, cupping her left breast with my large hand. This movement pulled her back flush against my chest. With my left hand I tilted her head up to meet mine and I bent down to take her lips.

The kiss was slow, soft and succulent. I drank her in with my whole being. Tilting my head to get just the right angle and then working every part of her mouth with mine, stroking her whole tongue in a very slow rhythm as I worked her lips open even farther.

I worked my right hand over her breast, my thumb rubbing her nipple to a hard point through her bra while I stroked the rest of her breast. My left hand moved lower to lightly stroke her mound through her panties and I felt her move her hips forward against me. I lifted her slightly and pinned her lower body between my hips and my hand, feeling her soft cheeks on either side of my painfully hard cock. I lifted her greedy mouth higher as I continued to plunder it.

This was it, I got her back unharmed and now I was going to take her, sink desperately deep inside her, make her mine again but this time it was going to start a relationship. This time it was going to be for real. I slid my hand under her bra and started pulling lightly on her hard tip, then I stroked her breast a few minutes more and pulled my hand back to give her right breast the same treatment.

We broke apart gasping for breath. I leaned back away from her and with my right hand undid her bra, guiding it as it floated down her arms and grasping it pushed it up my right arm so it wouldn't float away. Then I reach around her to caress her breasts some more. Teasing the left one round and round, pulling on it as the point tightened even tighter. Then I gave her right breast the same treatment.

My left hand released her, letting her float for a minute so I could slide it slowly inside her panties and stroke her hair for a minute. Then I gradually moved it down and cupping her again, pinning her to me. I stroked her silky mound lightly for a moment and then pressed harder, stroking the outside of her long line from her clit to her hole and back again. I leaned down and began kissing and suckling up her neck again and she moaned.

Her legs separated giving me full access and I pull her harder against me, massaging her mound with my palm and putting more pressure on her clit. I began circling her opening with one finger and coming back to stroke her clit again. Finally, I let my large middle finger slide between her lips and found a puddle of wetness waiting for me. She arched against my hand moaning and then her hands came back to grab my hips pulling me towards her, pressing her breasts out further for me to touch.

I slipped my middle finger inside her, finding her dripping, hot and ready. I pressed my palm firmly against her clit and applied pressure while I slowly slid my finger in and out. Then I added another and rocked my palm against her as I stroked in and out. For several long minutes I held her tight against my body, and started kissing her, teasing and testing her now exposed breasts and stroking her center.

She broke from the kiss panting, "Ranger, Ranger please." She begged and I knew what she was wanting. I had her begging on the first time around and savored the feeling for a second knowing that she wanted me, needed me, in that moment as much as I needed her.

I spun her around in my arms and plastered the front of her body up against mine. I slid both arms around her back trapping her against me and began kissing her again in earnest as I ground my dick into her. She lifted her legs up to wrap around me and I slid one hand under her butt holding her hips to mine and one behind her shoulders. After what seemed like forever we broke apart breathing hard.

"I love you Babe." Forever I thought to myself but didn't dare say it out loud. Then I started kissing her again, eating at her lips, stroking her tongue and I slowly slid my hand further under her, around her butt to once to stroke her sweet soft spot. I slid her lacy underwear aside and slipped two fingers into her. I began stroking her with more energy, feeling her hot core tighten around me.

I couldn't wait any more, I pulled her a little from me and fished the condom out of my board shorts. "Babe I've got to put you down for a second." I told her as I pulled her away from me and set her back on the sandy bottom. I pulled my shorts down, ripped open the condom and guided it down my thick girth. I put the wrapper back in my pocket and stepped out of one leg of my shorts. I reached out and pulled her back into my arms. I braced my legs wide to stand against the slightly rocking waves that were going in and out as I devoured her mouth. I wrapped her legs around me, pulled her bottoms aside and lifted her up to slide her down my length. I heard her groan and her tight sheath clamped down on me as the first vestiges of orgasm came over her.

Dios, she was always so responsive. From the first night to every kiss. It always drove me crazy thinking of the cop with her like this. In Hawaii, she turned from a slightly shy flower into a burning pot of desire and a few days of that here on this island would drive all thoughts of him from her mind and eventually her heart.

I just held her hips steady against me as she threw her head back moaning and continued to clench and contract around me. When her breathing had calmed I pulled her to me and kissed her slowly, deeply, with as much meaning and feeling as I could pour into it. I lifted her up and slid her back down me, she was so hot and slick and tight. Dios, I felt like my head was going to explode as I tried to hold back my own release.

I picked up the rhythm. She was weightless and floating in my arms. She tightened her legs around me on the downstrokes to pull harder down onto me, her hands holding tightly to my back. Part of me felt like I was going to explode any second but another part of me felt invincible like I could stand here fucking her all night. Water sex is slow and measured you can't go too fast or hard and I felt myself slowly building towards the inevitable and leaned forward suckling on her neck. I knew I was leaving a mark but this was one way to get her worked up faster.

Fuck, she was so tight and ready. I continued to slide in and out of her for several long moments, enjoying every second and practically biting my tongue to keep from moaning and groaning and saying her name out loud. I kept up my rhythm as I worked her hard, holding her to me and grinding into her on every downstroke until I heard her exhale sharply and start to contract around me. Then a groan escaped her lips and I felt her insides close tightly around my hard cock, her legs clinch around my hips, her hands dig into my shoulders.

I felt my control begin to waiver. I pulled her back away from me just a few inches to slam back into her. I finally let go and filled her as I felt her body contract firmly around me. I lost the last bit of control and began pumping into her vigorously again and again with my thick erection. She was cuming hard around me, I could feel her walls spasming around me as I let go. Releasing into her over and over again as I pressed her down on my hard length. Finally, my contracted muscles released and relaxed and I wrapped my arms around her to keep her firmly against me.

"Babe" I groaned and pulled her closer to me opening her mouth again to taste her. Kissing her gently, profoundly, savoring and exploring every part of her mouth while crushing her to me.

***************END SMUT***************

I pulled her in to the shallows and squatted down holding her in my lap. I lifted her up off me, removed the condom, tied it in a knot and pulled up my shorts, tucking it into my pocket. Then I kneeled down and pulled her back to me, her legs still wrapped around my hips. I wanted her to be mine forever and this just reminded me how good it is between us.

She flipped around in my arms so her back was to my front and stretched out her long legs. Her arms rested on mine and the motion of the water forced her butt to repeatedly graze my lap. I let out a deep breath when she leaned her head back against my chest. Her water drenched curls floating in the water hung limply against my skin. I glanced down at her beautiful face now basked in the light of the moon. I couldn't help but notice how the light amplified the glow of her face.

"Look at the stars. You never see this many stars in New Jersey." She said after a few minutes. I looked up at the massive expanse of stars and the Milky Way showing so prominently across the sky. It was so peaceful with her here floating in my arms.

"There is Ursa major, and Ursa minor and the north star. I love all the stars out here but there are so many I can't find Orion or Cassiopeia." She noticed.

"All the stars are so bright it washes out the ones you're used to seeing." I explained.

"It's all so beautiful." She sighed. We partially sat, partially floated watching the stars in the sky. I have seen the stars like this on hell-hole missions far away from civilization more times than I wanted to remember. They never held any meaning to me until now. The peace I felt sitting here with her soothes my wounded soul, thaws my frozen heart, wipes away some of the bad memories and breaks down the hard-protective wall I have built around myself for years.

We relaxed there just staring up into the sky and I was so aware of her presence in my lap. Suddenly her arm went up in the sky, "Shooting star." she said pointing and I looked up to see it right before it vanished. In that split second, I was a kid again and made my wish. I wanted this beautiful, buoyant, bombshell bounty hunter in my bed every night.

"Stephanie, Babe, I need you." It came out and I was shocked, unsure if I had said it out loud or just thought it. She looked back up at me and looked so innocent. She is just two-months younger than me but I have seen so much blood, death, and evil in this world that I felt corrupted and years beyond her. She was so clean and pure. I studied her face and noticed small marks from the fading bruises. I wanted to take them away and erase the pain they had caused her. I bent down and placed gentle upside-down kisses on the small marks that temporarily marred her perfect skin. We sat like that for an endless amount of time. Going into my zone and clearing my mind and just feeling her body move against me.

As her butt continued to bounce against me I felt myself slowly becoming aroused. I wanted her again but I was still enjoying the moment. In the past I had been anxious to have her so that I could add to my already treasured memories, never knowing which time might be the last. Before tonight, the last time we had been with each other was in Orlando for one glorious night and one fantastically busy morning. Over the years my body thirsted for hers. The times we had come together had been far too few and spread apart to quench my desire.

It wasn't like I hadn't tried to find release with other women. Most attempts had ended as quickly as they started when I found my body rebelling during a simple kiss with anyone else. The times I had forced myself to continue found me pulling up my pants at the same time I was pulling off the condom. Either way always had me waking up filled with regret and feeling like shit. It made no sense because it was always when she was with the cop, and I had never made any promises to her. But my body knew it had found 'The One' and every time I had tried to be with someone else it just wasn't satisfying. I had become unwillingly faithful to her though she had never known, even as I knew I could never have her.

One thing I hated was never being able to completely relax like this with her before. That's why Hawaii had become so special to me. It was the one time with her I could just be myself, and enjoy her without being worried for her safety. It also seemed like the one time she had completely given herself to me for more than just one night without feeling any guilt. She told me in the beginning that she had invited the cop but he couldn't or wouldn't take time off of work for her. It hadn't taken me one whole day of convincing to get her in my bed and keep her there. I was going to milk it out for her whole vacation. I could have given a shit less about the Rug.

I had Stephanie and I was going to keep her in that paradise for as long as she would let me until dumb ass came along and instead of accepting what obviously was, tried to hit me. To this day I wish she would have let us fight it out. When he came to the door the animosity I had denied feeling for him all this time rose up and I just wanted to take him down. We wouldn't have killed each other but I would have finally found release for the rage I had kept hidden under the surface for so long.

I was pulled away from my thoughts when the problem in my pants became more urgent. The movement of the water had her rubbing up against me with every lapping wave that came in or out. "Babe," I kissed her on the back of her neck and turned her around to face me.

I pulled her a little closer to the shore and knelt down in front of her again, knowing how this was going to go down. I dragged her to me, tugging each leg to straddle me. My motions were halted when I caught sight of her moonlit face and deep dark shadowed eyes that sparkled as she tilted her face up to look at the sky.

When she lowered her gaze to meet mine I felt myself being pulled in. I slowly bent my head down and brushed against her lips, once, twice, three times until she lifted them up higher to me, silently asking me for more. I lowered my head and used my tongue to gently part her swollen lips. I took my time slowly devouring her mouth before I pulled her groin to mine. I held her hips to me with both hands as I loved her lips.

I tilted my hips up to increase the pressure. I kept kissing her slow and deep, telling her with every part of my being how much I loved her, how much I needed her, and how much I had to have her right now.

I broke off the kiss and started working down her neck, kissing her right below her ear and then gently nipped her before my tongue began tracing a path down her neck. She cried out and tilted her head to give me better access. When I felt her thighs tighten around me my already hard erection grew almost painful with need. I kissed my way slowly down her neck leaving little love bites on my way. My announcement to the world that she was now mine again. I got down to the base of her neck and bit her pulse point lightly but felt her whole-body contract, a growl erupted out of her throat and I knew that she was close to losing control.

I had made love to her so many ways in Hawaii, serious, playful, long and slow, fast and hard, in the hot tub, the ocean, on the beach, the shower and on the bed. Even christening the couch, the chair and the desk as my laptop carelessly hit the floor. I knew every inch of her and how to make her body sing, and tonight I was going to play her song until she screamed my name for the whole world to hear.

Well really, she cried out and moaned and groaned, she wasn't really a screamer, but that would be my quest by the end of this trip. I would have her begging, pleading and screaming my name in desperation if not ecstasy. I worked my way up the other side of her neck, kissing, licking, sucking and leaving several more marks that no amount of make up tomorrow would hide as I slid my fingers between us.

***************SMUT***************

I began stroking her lightly over her thong and gently rubbing the outside of her mound trying to slowly work her into a frenzy. It wasn't long before she grabbed my wrist and forced my hand lower. I slid her panties aside and dipped into her folds testing her wetness. I found her ever reactive core flooded and ready for me. She moaned deeply and ground down trying to increase the pressure. I used two fingers and began stroking along her outer lips applying a light pressure. Her body was hungry for more and she began to wiggle her hips against me until I relented and slipped my fingers inside her. She started moving her hips up and down riding my hand to get some relief.

Any other time I would have her orgasming several times before entering her but tonight I was being selfish. The feel of the heat around my fingers made me desperate to be inside her and feel her riding me. I released her hip with my other hand and used it to lower my shorts. I quickly freed myself before pulling her back down against me. The whole time I kept my hand inside her bottoms stroking her higher as I felt her rubbing up and down against me.

I took her mouth again and felt her groan as she desperately clung to my shoulders. She was practically hopping up and down on my hand. I heard her whimper as I slowly slid my fingers out of her hungry canal. I went to move her panties aside again and finally just ripped them off. I pressed her into me as I used her arousal to guide my hard length in between her folds. I suddenly couldn't wait any more and pulled the hidden condom out from under my watch and watched her hooded eyes widen as she saw me tear it open with my teeth.

She lifted away giving me room to operate as I pinched the tip and methodically unrolled it down my throbbing manhood. God, I needed her and I needed her now. I pulled her back down, aligned myself and slowly slid her dripping heat down my hard shaft and just held her there as I ground against her burying myself deep, touching her womb. As soon as I felt her insides clamp down onto me I couldn't stop myself from lifting her up and quickly bringing her back down onto my thickness.

I took her mouth and sucked at her tongue as I quickly set a rhythm with my hands guiding her hips. She desperately tried to speed up the pace, her hands digging into my shoulders as she clung to me. The buoyant water lifting her up and her legs tightening around me as she forced herself back down. My hands gripped her hips and helped, pulling her down hard against me as I thrust my hips up. I broke the kiss to catch my breath and kept the movement up with my hands, up and down, up and down sensuously driving her hard against me as I thrusted up into her.

 _Dios_ , again it felt so good, she was so tight and hot and wet I wanted this to last all night and I was dying to hear her call my name. Totally selfish I know but I couldn't help it, I wanted her to want me half as much as I wanted, no needed her. I took her mouth again kissing her with a pent-up passion that would have me telling her I loved her. While every woman wants to hear those words, if you tell them when you are inside them they can easily be dismissed as utterings that meant nothing in the heat of the moment. I wanted that phrase to explain to her the connection that makes me feel like we are one. In my heart we were joined at the hip for life, in love, in explosive mind-blowing sex. I broke off the kiss again both our breathing labored as we built our way towards orgasm.

Suddenly she cried out as her head tilted back and I forced her back down and held her still as I continued to thrust up into her. She convulsed around me, tightening almost painfully around my thick girth. I slowly lifted her up and pulled her back down again, as she continued to contract in waves around me. Nearly setting myself off with her I held her still until the contractions slowed and waited a moment knowing it would take time for her to relax but then she would become hungrier for me than before.

I had done this same routine for almost an hour one afternoon in the hot tub after a busy day of making love and being mostly sated, I built her up over and over again holding off four times before finally climaxing with her on the fifth. Tonight, I was so on edge again I was going to have to work hard to make it two more for her before I blew.

Slowly her head came forward and I lowered my forehead to hers looking deep into her eyes and seeing the love, the satisfaction, the relaxation there, even as she was still working hard to catch her breath. I just watched her eyes slowly come back into focus and start to notice me and I smiled my full-on smile holding her hips still even as the waves rocked us back and forth.

She slowly smiled back at me, sliding her arms around my neck, holding me close, until I could really see the love shining in her face and swore to myself that I was never going to dim it again. After another minute I asked, "ready to go again?" and surprisingly her smile got bigger and I knew that look. I was going to be doing this until we collapsed in the wee hours of the morning. Then she arched her hips back against me and I lowered my mouth to hers, relaxing my grip on her hips as I let her move around so she could once again find her own pace.

I kissed her deeply, mouth and tongues melding together, my arms now wrapped behind her back molding her breasts against me. I groaned when I felt her hard nipples brushing against my chest. I was rock hard inside her with my body just waiting for any excuse to explode but I wanted to build her back up until she was moaning and riding me uncontrollably and it started with her mouth. Never had I known such a kissable mouth.

Sweet lips like sugar, a tongue so firm, so sexy to stroke. She was so mouthwateringly fresh I felt like I could kiss her for hours and one day I was going to try. Her mouth was so responsive to mine I could wind her up with just a kiss and already her hips were starting to move against mine. I pulled away from her mouth and starting at her pulse point, on her right side, kissed my way across almost to her shoulder where I nipped a few times then worked my way back to her pulse point, opened my mouth and bit down.

She arched sharply against me, it was one of the things I had found that spurred her on. A touch of pain in the form of a hard bite in the fleshy tendons meeting at her neck did something to ramp her up and the way I was feeling I needed to get her up to speed fast. I released my bite and kissed my way back half way up her neck where I sucked hard. Her hips picked up their rhythm as I felt her nails gripping into my shoulders, holding on to me like an anchor as she drove herself up and down on me.

I knew I was leaving a full mouth sized mark on the side of her neck but she wasn't thinking about what I was doing, only going with the sensations it provoked so I didn't stop, sucking harder and getting another hip response. My hand went back to her hips and I began guiding her beat into long steady strokes. Pulling her up almost all the way off and forcing her firmly back down. She immediately caught on and took it up for herself and I relaxed on the upstroke and determinedly pulled her down against me as I thrusted my hips up. Only to relax my grip so she could go again.

She all but admitted out right to me in Hawaii that not only was I bigger than the cop I was better, better at kissing and better at making love. That he has never done it more than three times in one night and that he always wants it in the morning when she is still trying to sleep. God love her, I smiled to myself, she is many things but a morning person is not one of them. She even acknowledged faking it with him once or twice when he was persistent and she wasn't really in the mood. I knew her so well now and knew when she wanted it. I would always make sure she was actually into it. I was not so selfish that I didn't always make sure my partner finished first.

It was so good and she was so tight I was not going to last like this so I released her hip with my right hand and pressed it sideways low on her stomach, my hand spreading, my thumb reaching down to find her tender nub. Once I found it I started a steady pace. Two circles on her way up and two circles on the way down. I felt it harden and her hips tilt forward to increase the friction. I increased the pressure with my thumb and with my left hand on her hip I took over the pace. I was driving her down faster onto my length and then thrusting my hips up to push myself in deeper. She let out a deep moan and then I increased the speed with my thumb and was rewarded with another low moan uttered from her lips. I wanted to keep this up indefinitely, letting her ride me while I stroked her. I let my own head lay back to just bask in the pleasure we were giving each other. Lengthy minutes ensued and I could tell she was getting ready again.

Her fingers bit into my back as she drove herself down on top of me. Suddenly she cried out, her head thrashing back and forth for a moment as she came intensely around me squeezing me impossibly tight as I vibrated my thumb over her clit back and forth as fast as I could. Her head turned back to focus on me as a guttural sound escaped her lips. That was all I could take. I lifted her up and pulled her back down as I thrusted up, again and again.

"Babe" was my horse cry as lights flashed behind my eyes, my release so intense I was almost blinded. My lower body seized but my arms pumped her up and down as I spurted deep inside her over and over and over again.

***************END SMUT***************

When I was done I wrapped my arms around her clutching her close, molding her to me, wanting to open up and pull her inside making her one with me and again my head fell forward, this time to rest on her shoulder as I worked to catch my rough breath. She turned her head and kissed my temple before leaving her lips pressed against my neck.

Once I had caught my breath I turned my head to meet her lips for a quick kiss before I buried my face back into her shoulder. I kissed my way back up to her neck, licking off the drops of salt water resting there. I caught the lobe of her ear and tugged on it gently. Then I licked up the outer rim of her ear and she shivered in the warm water. I clutched her to me holding her so tight, never wanting to ever let her go again and I took her mouth. Her sweet salty mouth, and I kissed her deeply. Stroking her tongue, then pulling back and nipping at her lips before kissing her hard one more time. I wanted to tell her that I loved her that I was never letting her go again, but I knew it was too soon and too fast for her.

After several more minutes I lifted her off me and stood, pulling my shorts back up, pulling her to her feet and leading her back up to the beach. I handed her the wet bra, which she wadded up in one hand, and the clothes off my shirt, which she accepted and slowly slid on. I picked up the gun and slid it back into my pocket. I just carried my shirt, shaking the sand from it, knowing that I was going to wear it a lot on the island and not wanting to get it all salty just yet.

I led her back up the beach, hand in hand, smiling like it was the best night of my life because it was going to be one of them. When we got to where the volleyball net was set up I searched around for our shoes. Once I had located them I carried both hers and mine in one hand leaving my other hand free so that I could continue holding onto hers.

Halfway back we could see the outdoor lights from several of the cabanas and she stopped. "Everyone is in bed and those that aren't are watching TV, or doing something else." I assured her. "Everyone's curtains are closed Babe, no one is standing by their front window looking out. Come on." I tried to encourage her, but she was hesitant pulling her hand from mine, but I held on tight.

"Come on Babe, no one knows what we've been doing but us. No one will be surprised to see us together.

She relaxed against me and gave me a small nod and I led her to our cabana which was the second one down on the left side right next to my grandmothers. I had to debate the wisdom of this set up, knowing how loud we could get, but figured since each of them had at least four kids, it wouldn't be any surprise that two young people in love would be burning up the sheets instead of sleeping in them.

Once inside I pulled her into my arms and kissed her again but after a moment she pulled away.

"Your shorts are too wet. Where are we going to hang our wet things?"

"No problem, they can dry over the shower rod." I told her as I stripped down and finally removed my condom, finding the small bedroom trash can to empty my pocket. I had always considered myself lucky that with my girth and staying power, I didn't shrink so fast a used condom would slide off un-expectedly.

"Come on Babe," I told her, "let's take a shower." I walked back over to my bag and retrieved several more condoms knowing that our night time activities were just getting started.

We were active all night long, doing it twice again after our shower. Finally we slept ,but I woke her up two more times rivaling the night of the deal. I reset my morning alarm for seven am. Enough time to get Stephanie up and to the dining room for breakfast.

I woke before my alarm and decided against waking up Stephanie for another round. Something about having her for good was amping up my normally high sex drive and I needed to slow down. I discovered in Hawaii that while she might be good for as many rounds as I wanted one day, the next she would be sore and not interested in bedroom activities. She would probably already be sore from our night of frolicking and would need the day to recover. Besides, no matter how badly I wanted her, I knew morning was not her time of the day unless she was up first and initiating the activity.

I showered and dressed in another pair of black board shorts and a blue t-shirt with my leather flip flops for the day. Knowing my men have never seen me so casually dressed, I suddenly changed my mind and pulled out some of the extra RangeMan tanks that Ella had made and put one on. It left me more casual than normal, but still on-duty and in charge of the men.

I checked my emails but there was no new information from Tank. He thinks the men after us have left Newark because every lead is turning up cold. At seven I gently woke Stephanie who rolled over and put her pillow over her head wanting to go back to sleep.

"Come on Babe. You have to get up if you want breakfast. They are only serving it till eight." She rolled back over and looked at me with bleary blue eyes and I made a mental note not to keep her up as much tonight. She needed a good eight hours of sleep, where I can function with less than four and be optimal after six. I turned on the shower and waited till it was warm, then I walked to her side of the bed, pulled the sheets away and dragged her to the bathroom and pushed her under the spray.

I didn't really want to be so pushy but she would be madder for missing breakfast, and her stomach would be complaining all morning, than at me for pushing her into a shower. I went into the small sitting area and waited so she could get out and dressed without me ogling her. Fifteen minutes later she appeared. Hair pulled back in an expected pony tail, with a green t-shirt and blue jean shorts with white sandals.

I smiled at her, she was so beautiful in the morning. Heck I thought she always looked beautiful, but in the morning, she was still sleep stuptified and was soft, sweet and warm, like cuddling up to a life size, teddy bear. I pulled her into my arms, held her close and kissed her deeply. Then I simply took her hand and led her to the dining room.

To be continued…

A/N: Thank you! Thank you! Thank you all for your reviews! Now up to 104 reviews! Thank you shellbell78! You were my 100th review. Thank you to all my guest reviewers I can't respond to you but I appreciate you! Big Christmas Thank You to all my regular reviewers! Thank you Buddy's Babe, First Generation Scot, trhodes9, aruvqan, GarbanzoBeans, the newest daughter, bb2020, Angela Mueller, redbird23, baileygirl12, and most Especially Vulcan Rider for all your great reviews! The week before Christmas has been crazy and I haven't been able to respond to reviews like I had been. Just know I love and appreciate every one! Merry Christmas! This is your Christmas present from me. Hope you have a great day!

As always big THANK YOU to my beta Sassysaint who makes my story's more readable. You are AWESOME! THANK YOU! Couldn't do it with-out you! If you haven't read all her stories, they are great and will give you something to do this long Christmas week.

Second Big THANK YOU to my sister, Jonelle. Who is giving my stories a thorough technical analysis (ie deep proof reading) Thank you for offering great suggestions and fixing all my comma's, apostrophes, and all my many other little mistakes. THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

A/N When Ranger told me he wanted a night time beach stroll under the stars I expected words of love and commitment, another heartfelt romantic discussion, not seduction. But that seems to have been his plan and it worked out quite well (for him). This was the first smut scene I have ever written and I think it came out ok. At least he said he was satisfied with it. Please read and review but be gentle it was my first time…..writing it. ; )

Ok I have to be brutally honest, I tried something like this once and well we were standing out too deep, the waves kept pushing us around but something happens when you stand too long in dark water, little fish come up and bite you on the butt. I don't know if our butts were so white they shined in the moonlight but me and my man kept getting bit and though we were determined we just couldn't make it happen in the water and retired to the sand. Doing it on the sand was more effective, but you get sand everywhere! Well I always imagined it being better and more romantic so this is what my imagination came up with. I kept trying to get little fish to bite Ranger on the butt and maybe because he doesn't have a white, glow in the dark ass. Or maybe because it is too sizzling hot, or maybe because he is Ranger and stuff like that just doesn't happen to him I couldn't bribe one single little fish to do it. I know if I was a fish you couldn't stop me from wanting to bite an ass that fine, but I couldn't get one fish to dare to enter his space and mess with his ass, his woman or his rhythm. LOL : )

Trenton Merry Men Assignments (20 Men)

Abuela Sanja – Vince

Abuela Rosa – Manuel

Maria – Erik

Leyla – Hal

Angelia – Woody

Isabella – Cal

Oshanna – Lester

Rachel – Eddie

Julie – Junior

Stephanie – Ranger, Marc

Extras – Bobby, Ram, Zero, Zip

Night's – Chester, Chet, Gino, Mario, Ramon, Ryan


	14. Chapter 14 Island Fun

Chapter 14 Island Fun

A/N Happy 2018! May it be our BEST year ever!

 _I didn't really want to be so pushy but she would be madder for missing breakfast, and her stomach would be complaining all morning than at me for pushing her into a shower. I went into the small sitting area and waited so she could get out and dressed without me oogling her. Fifteen minutes later she appeared. Hair pulled back in an expected pony tail, with a green t-shirt and blue jean shorts and white sandals._

 _I smiled at her, she was so beautiful in the morning. Heck I thought she always looked beautiful, but in the morning, she was still sleep stuptified and was soft, sweet and warm, like cuddling up to a life size, warm teddy bear. I pulled her into my arms, held her close and kissed her deeply. Then I simply took her hand and led her to the dining room._

Sunday May 17 07:17

Almost everyone was already in the dining room and I knew I still had to address island rules with the family. Angelia was obviously missing with her two little ones. I would wait, when everyone was here I would address the crowd.

The hot breakfast buffet had scrambled eggs, fried potatoes, bacon, sausage, pancakes, toast, and oatmeal with dried fruit. There was also an assortment of fruit, cups of yogurt, Danishes, muffins and cold cereal in prepackaged Styrofoam cups to choose from. Both chocolate and plain milk, as well as apple, cranberry and orange juice were in the coolers. Then there was coffee, regular and decaf, and hot water for making tea. I don't know who made up these menus but all the kids had stacks of pancakes.

I took my oatmeal with eggs and Stephanie her bacon, sausage, eggs and pancakes with juice. I set my plate down on the table and encouraged Stephanie to sit down. I went and got coffee for us both knowing she would need at least two cups to become coherent, filling hers with cream and sugar the way she liked and taking both cups back to the table.

When I got back to the table Julio was now sitting next to Stephanie, her hand in his, "Looks like you were attacked by a swarm of sucker fish last night. They attacked you here and here and here." He pointed to different spots on her neck as she pulled away from him. I stood over him giving him my death warmed over glare. He picked up his plate and stood up saying, "If you need some protecting from those nasty swarms just let me know."

At a quarter to eight Angelia showed up. I know in her mind her life was perfect, but she seemed to be struggling more with her "perfect" children than she would like anyone to believe. She got them plates of food and sat down next to my parents. I nodded at my men that they could help themselves to whatever food was left. I seemed to be the only oatmeal eater in the group and I was glad for the option, even as my men slowly progressed to the bar and helped themselves to the remaining food. As people began to take their plates to scrape off and set in the dish buckets to be washed I got up to address everyone.

"How is everyone doing this morning?" I asked.

"Better now that we are on the island. There is nothing to do here but at least I can relax and we are safe here." Oshanna said. There was a chorus of answers following hers.

"Excited." I heard from one of the boys.

"More relaxed." Mama said and there were several nods.

"Safer." Isabella said.

"I can't wait, there is a speed boat out there and we can go skiing." Diego said.

"Nieto, es domingo y no hay iglesia. ¿Dónde puedo sacar velas a la luz y decir mis oraciones?" Abuela Rosa asked. (Grandson, it is Sunday and there is no church. Where can I get candles to light and say my prayers?)

"Sí mi'jo, la isla es hermosa. Pero estamos perdiendo misa esta mañana." Mama pointed out the obvious. (Yes son, the island is beautiful. But we are missing mass this morning.)

"No sé de ninguna iglesia aquí en la isla. Pero voy a ver si no puedo encontrar algunas velas y se puede encender en la playa y decir sus oraciones." (I don't know of any church here on the island. But I will see if I can't find some candles and you can light them on the beach and say your prayers.)

I addressed the group. "After breakfast, I will find Janice and see if she can come talk to us. She is the island coordinator in charge of activities. She can help you figure out things to do." I looked directly at Oshanna. "Before we split up we need to go over island rules. Everything is now more relaxed and the rules are simple. First on days where there is no ship in port you have the run of the island. My men will be patrolling around the cabanas and the beaches. They will be carrying LSAT machine guns. This is because any threat is going to come by boat or air and we will see it coming from far away, we need weapons to reach the threat before they get to shore."

"Basically, you don't need to worry unless you hear gunfire. If that happens everyone must get down and stay down until one of my men comes for you. But for general safety all the kids need to have a buddy and at all times your buddy and one parent or assigned adult must know where you are. The adults also need to have someone that knows where you are all the time. Even if you just text me where you are going, let someone know so we don't end up having an island wide search and find out you are in the bathroom or you went snorkeling."

"So those are the two rules – One if you hear gunfire, get down and stay down until someone comes and gets you. When I say down I mean down on the ground. If you are in the ocean get low, get to the shore and get down on the sand. Second, you always stay with your buddy and if you're an adult someone knows where you are at all times. I am going to add a third. If you're an adult you keep your phone with you at all times. They are waterproof, stick them in your bathing suit if you're going in the water with the exception of skiing. Then leave them on the boat."

"Tuesday and Saturday are ship days. On ship days the ship is in port from 7:00 am till 6:00pm. Regular detail, have your eyes on your subject all the time. They stay with you all day no exceptions."

"The rest of this is not rules just the basics for being on the island. Meals are at 7, 12, and 6. If you are late you miss out. I have asked that there are always snacks left up here for the kids and if someone misses a meal. The water cooler here is always full and the water coolers in your cabanas will be kept full if you are having the cleaner come in and clean every day. I haven't talked to her, I have just been told that is one of her duties. If you put your 'do not clean' sign up, you are responsible for filling your own water cooler. Stay hydrated, make sure you and your kids are drinking two or three bottles of water every four hours and at least one with each meal. It is easy to forget to drink when you are having a good time. It is hot here and won't take long to get dehydrated under this intense sun, day after day."

"Sunscreen is mandatory for anyone that is not darker than me. Even I can burn being outside all day this close to the equator, so use sunscreen liberally, reapply often and maybe find activities in the shade during the afternoon when the sun is the most intense. I will check in with everyone as we go along and see how everyone is doing. Other than that, have fun. That is why we are here, so we could go somewhere safe and have fun. I am going to go find Janice and have her talk to everyone so if you would all just stay here for a few minutes I will be right back."

I ran to the next building over hoping Janice would be there. I have never met her but her name was in the email Skylar sent. I found a five-foot six inch, brown haired, very Hispanic and very tanned woman wearing cut-off shorts and a red floral shirt tied at the waist.

"Janice, Hi I'm Carlos. I'm in charge of this group and I would like you to talk to everyone about what we can do on the island while we are here."

"Sure, I'd be glad too."

A few minutes later she addressed the group.

"Hi I'm Janice and I'm your activity director during your stay. I'd like to quickly review our rules for the island and all the fun activities we have available. The island has a partner policy, you can't go snorkeling, paddle boarding, wind surfing or boating by yourself. Three people are required to go skiing or tubing behind the ski boat and on ship days, only cruise line employees are allowed to drive the boat. There are surf boards but most of the time there aren't big enough waves to really surf. You're welcome to take them out as floats though. All equipment has to be checked out through me. I'll be in and around the game building all day during your stay. All equipment has to be checked back in by 6:00pm, just in time to clean up for dinner.

We have a huge recreation room with indoor activities for keeping busy. There are many different materials available for painting, drawing, coloring, including several new adult coloring books and gel pens, a large craft table, ping pong, board games, books, two computers with internet, a Nintendo gaming system with four controllers and over 60 different games, a 55-inch tv and DVD player and over 100 DVD's, hand held games and a small ball pit for your younger kids.

After dinner, there's not much to do outside on the island, but if you decide to go for a walk or a swim you need to have someone with you. The game room is open all night for ping pong or card games and the TV and DVD player are always available. We have a small liquor cabinet in there that you can get the key to before dinner if you know you want to have a drink. Prior groups have had movie parties with popcorn and snacks, game nights and paint parties.

There are no lighted paths on the island, only the porch lights on the cabanas and building lights outside the dining room and game room. I do have mini flashlights for your use, that say Blue Island Cruises and can be attached to your room key." She passed these out to all the adults and when requested the older girls.

Janice was so friendly and open I felt confident that my family was in good hands. When she finished talking everyone broke out in discussions of what they wanted to do. Many of the kids were anxious to hit the beach and Oshanna and Stephanie wanted to go snorkeling. I took a deep breath, everyone was safe, the island had full protection and Stephanie was mine. At least for now. I followed Janice out of the dining room and got her attention.

"Janice, two things. I would like to get the key for the liquor cabinet and to know exactly where it is. Second do you have any candles and some matches?"

"Sure," she spunkily answered, "follow me."

I followed her back to the game room and she handed me a key on a Blue Island Cruise Lines key chain and pointed to a large wooden cabinet on the wall opposite the TV then walked into a backroom. She came back with a handful of candles and a box of matches.

"These are emergency candles, they are several years old but should still burn. We have a whole box of them that we'll never use because we have lanterns and flashlights if we ever didn't have power. But everything runs on solar power and batteries here so we probably don't even need those. We would have to be without sunshine for more than three days before we lost power." She handed them all to me. "The only rule is you can't light them in the cabanas. I didn't ask you what you wanted them for." She looked at me questioningly.

"My mother and grandmothers are missing Mass this morning and if nothing else I thought lighting a few candles would help them feel better."

I returned back to the dining room and distributed my prizes to Grandma Rosa's delight and suggested they light them on the beach with the children this morning so that they can include them in their prayers.

An hour later I was struggling to tighten the straps to a fin.

"Try to hold your leg straight." I instructed and Stephanie rolled her eyes, as she sat back on her elbows in the sand, leg lifted in the air. Fourteen members of my family were already out snorkeling, even Cassie, who at six, was a master in the ocean. Janice, who efficiently handed out and fitted the equipment, explained that on a ship day she was use to dispersing hundreds of sets in a day so 16 was not a problem.

After breakfast snorkeling was the number one desired activity and while I personally would have chosen to go with fewer people, the more people you have churning up the water the more fish they scare away, Stephanie really wanted to come with everyone else. She thought she could adjust the straps herself, even though she has never in her life been snorkeling, and now I was fighting against a limp foot and wiggly leg while I tried to pull her fins on tight.

I can dress a man in full diving gear in five minutes, well usually we would double team him. One man on each side as we dragged the skin-tight wetsuit on, got them zipped and started loading them down with equipment. But this was like trying to put shoes on my three-year-old nephew, totally limp feet that wave around in the air while you tried to get shoes on and tied. I finally propped her heel against my thigh, pushed the fin on her foot and pulled the strap tight, repeat other leg.

"Now take them off."

"But you just got them on."

"I just got them fitted, it is very hard to walk out there in fins. You walk out and then float while you put them on." I explained. She bent her legs wearing her smoking hot blue bikini and pulled at the straps that were now too tight. I repeated the leg process releasing the straps by one notch and then removed the fins and pulled her to her feet, before handing them back to her. I gathered all my equipment. "Ready Babe?"

"Yes, show me the fish." I put on my mask and snorkel encouraging her to do the same, took her hand and led her to the water.

The crystal blue-green water reflected the sunlight streaming through in waves down to the bottom of the ocean which was fifteen to twenty feet below us. The depth allowed enough buffer that the sea life weren't too spooked by our presence and there were lots of bright fish and multicolored coral to look at. At least until Julie started a game of keep away that involved stealing one flipper from Freddy and throwing it back and forth to Maggie and Becky while they teased their victim.

The thrashing around on the surface of the water caused the fish to scatter and a few minutes later Ron intervened to restore calm. I checked my watch, three hours had passed and I couldn't believe I had spent three hours watching fish. When I was really honest, I realized I had spent three hours watching Stephanie and Julie watch fish. It was past time to recoat Stephanie in sun screen and I got her attention and pointed to the shore.

After snorkeling it was time for lunch. Meal time made for an easy check-in, to make sure everyone was doing okay. Leyla was talking about the sandcastles with moats the other children had built. Julie, Becky and Maggie got into a discussion about who could build the best sandcastle and it was on. After lunch it was now coming up on one and the peak of the sunny day.

"Okay, I think we all need to stay out of the sun for a few hours." I told the group and parents nodded in agreement. Julie, one of the darkest kids from all the time she spent outdoors and her naturally dark skin from me disagreed. "Jewels, it is getting really hot out here and the younger kids need to stay inside for a few hours. So please be a good example and lets all go play games for a little while." She finally nodded her ascent and we trooped into the game room to see what was available.

Stephanie and I joined the girls for some card games and they chose to start with War. Now War with three decks and five people is a challenge, but the girls were plenty experienced and the card playing went fast with everyone flipping their cards over in the middle and the winner grabbing them back in a flash. The high moment of the game was a four-person war between Stephanie, Becky, Julie and myself. Becky won giving her the most cards and leading her to eventually win the game.

The game then changed to Crazy 8's and now instead of trying to get cards you were trying to get rid of them. Eventually Julie won. It went a lot faster and we played several games before Uno Attack was suggested. This was a new kind of Uno with a machine that spits cards out at you, which I managed to avoid three times in a row, getting down to two cards before Julie laughed devilishly and swapped hands with me. Stephanie ultimately won that game, for which I had to give her another kiss, but it kept the girls attention and we played cards for over two hours before Leyla said her kids could get sunscreen on and go back outside. I was relieved that none of the girls had asked Stephanie about the marks on her neck. She didn't seem embarrassed or try to hide them. I thought her actions brought less attention to them and made it not seem like a big deal.

Diego led Richard, Chris, Ricky, Mykie and Julio, out to go waterskiing and tubing while my parents helped watch their kids. Everyone else gathered on the white sandy beaches to watch the construction of sandcastles and supervise the young kids frolicking in the gentle waves.

Two of the prepackaged sand toys had already been opened and claimed by the younger children this morning so the older girls ripped into the two remaining packages fighting over the buckets with turrets briefly before being told they could switch buckets with one of the younger kids to get a third. Janice had gone all out providing beach chairs and loungers that had built in holes to hold up umbrellas for all the adults. She also provided two piles of oversized towels for everyone to use for the two weeks, telling everyone to hang them on the clothes lines provided behind the last row of cabanas.

An hour later, the girls, now done with the basic creations, were still working on their sandcastles by drawing in windows and drawbridges, adding little stick flags, and digging moats that refused to hold water. I slathered Stephanie's back with more sunscreen and pulled her into the ocean to swim around with me. I had been giving her little kisses all day, and had to laugh at the fresh purple marks on both sides of her neck that mirrored the fading marks on her face.

"Come on Babe. It's beautiful out here." I pulled her out further than we could both stand and swam around her like last night but in a larger circle. I grew up going to the beach throughout the summers but those occasional events never let me really swim that much. When I went through Ranger training and had to swim miles I learned that I had a large lung capacity and enjoyed swimming long distances.

Right now, I desperately wanted to go swim a few miles which wasn't advisable under our current situation, lest one of my men see a figure moving from out in the ocean towards the island and shoot me. Instead, I swam up to Stephanie who was half floating and pulled her to me. I slowly spun us around in the water so clear we could see to the white sand below and the little fishes that darted around us.

"You are so beautiful and getting tan so fast."

"It's the Italian genes, if I spent more time in the sun I would always be darker, but my Hungarian roots make me lose my tan within a few weeks. Unlike your tan that is permanent." I smiled at her. I slowed our spinning and pulled her to me. She wrapped her arms around my neck and we floated for about ten seconds, legs and arms entwined, before I started to sink.

She hadn't mentioned Morelli all day. As a matter of fact, we hadn't talked much except for commenting on what we were doing. I wondered if she was considering a relationship with me or if she felt guilty over last night. She seemed to be relaxed and truly enjoying herself so I decided not to question her. I figured she would come to me when she wanted to discuss what was going on between us.

Being mostly solid muscle, with no obvious fat, I know that if I exhale deeply I can sink all the way to the bottom. My lungs are the only thing that keep me from drowning, filled I can float for hours. I began kicking, spinning us slowly around, while looking deeply into her eyes. Every time I had her in my arms I still felt amazed that I got her back unharmed.

I could stare at her like this for hours, it heals the wounds on my heart made when I watched that video. If I could say my heart could break, it broke in that moment for her, and holding her now was still a healing balm on my soul. This trip was costing a small fortune, but it is nothing compared to the amount I would have paid to get her back whole and undamaged like this.

"Ranger,-"

"Carlos, Babe, Carlos."

"Carlos" instead of continuing she pushed me away and swam back to where the water was chest high on her. I followed her stopping a few feet shy of her. I knew what she was going to say, it was all over her face.

"Carlos, we shouldn't have done what we did last night. I don't know what I was thinking. I think I need to move into my own cabana and stay further away from you while we are on the island."

"Stephanie, this loyalty is misplaced. You know when you two are apart he is free with his goods. His boys go and visit other women. Right?" She looked at me astonished.

"When you first started dating he had been single for a while, but really Terry Gilman was trying to get him to go out and with her mob connections he wouldn't do it. But after one of your fights I guess he got tired of being alone and went out and found someone to spend the night with. Lately he has two different women who he goes and visits when you are off." I told her.

"No, he doesn't, that is ridiculous. Deep down he loves me, we are supposed to get married." She said.

"I agree that he loves you because he always comes back to you, but how hard do you think it would be for him to find someone to share his bed? Why do you think he always wants to have an open relationship with you? It's so he can see his other women on the side." She just stood their dumbstruck as if the idea truly hadn't crossed her mind.

"You don't need to feel like you have to be faithful to him because I can guarantee that he is not being faithful to you. Well his arm might be slowing him down, but I can get pictures for you if you would like. I have never brought it up because I figured you knew or at least suspected."

"Well once I suspected because I went by his house three nights in a row and he was never home. But he said he was working and he works such crazy hours sometimes…" She trailed off turning back time in her mind. "And there was this one time in Giviochini's where Gina asked me if I was dating someone new too but I didn't know what she was talking about because Joe and I had been broken up for two weeks. Then there was that time that Joyce came into the bonds office spouting that Joe had been in the bar last night and had gone home with some girl, but I figured it was just Joyce lying to hurt me. Rang-Carlos, I don't know, I didn't know. I have had that thought and sometimes when we were broken up I thought that I wished he would see someone else because I was tired of the rollercoaster ride. But damn. I never heard through the grapevine. You would think that people would have been talking about it."

"Babe, people like to gossip about you. Your mother is a big gossip, everyone likes to call her and talk about you. But Joe and his mother are respected and she put out there a long time ago that his love life was off the table, not for discussion. People only talk about him when it relates to you. Other than that, they fear his mother and his grandma Bella and it keeps talk to a minimum."

"Still I can't believe that no one ever told me. Mary Lou would have told me and she always knows what's going on."

"Maybe she didn't want to hurt your feelings knowing he was dating and you weren't. Or maybe she, like you, your parents and a lot of the burg thought that eventually you two would get together for real and he would let the other women go. Don't take my word for it. I have a satellite phone, you can call her and ask."

"I thought you said it had to be dire or an emergency to use the satellite phone."

"Babe, this will drive you crazy till you know the truth. You trust me and I have never lied to you, so you want to believe me but I can see the doubt in your eyes and I want you to hear it from another reliable source." I could see that part of her wanted to get out of the water right now and go make that call. Another part warred within her wanting to take me at my word but knew I had a huge stake in the outcome and might sway the truth to get her to keep sleeping with me. The final part of her feared the truth and didn't want to hear that Joe might be with other women while they are apart.

She stared across the water, unseeing the people moving on the beach or the palm trees swaying in the gentle tropical breeze. She looked back at me, "I know you wouldn't lie to me. Not about something as important as this. But if I'm going to call someone it's going to be Joe and he can explain it to me." Then she turned away hurt plainly on her face and wandered through the water back to shore.

I hated hurting her like that. It was like ripping off a bandage and realizing the scab had come too and now it was gushing blood. There might have been gentler ways to tell her, but it was going to hurt her either way. I'm surprised she didn't suspect it long before now, especially the way he always kept them having an open relationship and never willing to make a final commitment.

I took out my phone and texted all my men. _'Going for a several mile swim off east side of the island. Don't shoot me.'_ With my strong arms and powerful chest, swimming is easy for me. I slipped into a long rhythmic movement, my long arms smoothly pulling me forward, while I kicked my legs mechanically. Time flows by with the water as I smoothly slice my way out through the ocean. My whole body relaxes as I fall into the rhythm I established years ago.

Half an hour slips by as I lose myself in my thoughts about this situation and Sergio. In two more days, once the ship had come and gone, I would get a small plane to fly in and get me. Then I would make my way to Colombia. I know where his southern compound is, that is where he and his men were based when they were trying to steal that land. I had an idea where one western compound was based. But I knew he had an emerald mine, cocaine fields, a uranium mine, shipping and packing plants, a whole shipping company of trucks, airplanes and cargo ships spread all over; he could literally be anywhere.

While we had stopped him from taking the lands by force; a government agreement was passed to protect the farmers. It didn't mean he couldn't get the land, just that he would have to pay them fair market value for the uranium rich land that had been discovered there.

The uranium had been discovered by accident when a local stream that ran through their lands tested positive for minute amounts of radiation and the government, having many other problems, didn't want to deal with it. An ambulance chasing lawyer, as we would call him here, got wind of the situation and volunteered to represent the farmers for a percentage of the sales price if they decided to sell. He paid for exploratory drilling so the type, the quantity and quality of the uranium could be determined.

No significant uranium deposits have ever been found in Colombia, compared to other nations around the world, so it was very rare and a big deal. The government's plan was supposed to protect the farmers and keep the uranium from falling into the wrong hands. Instead Sergio ended up paying millions for the land he had been bullying the farmers for. Since there were no legal controls in Colombia, he still made millions selling uranium to countries that had been limited or restricted by other nations, violating international laws. Still, our interference cost him over twenty-five million up front and a few good men, and in return he had vowed retribution.

Last I had checked, there were still a few international contracts out on my life, but in the first few years when those coming after me all disappeared it made those contracts less appealing for anyone to try and fulfill. I had to send a strong message with Sergio, done right it would protect Stephanie, Julie and my family far into the future. It was time to resurrect the knife, I had already had that thought in mind when I packed and brought my little battery powered jewelry engraver with me.

My thoughts ran out and I had peaceful quiet for a while when I realized that I had been swimming for over an hour and had gone several miles. I floated for a few moments getting my bearings and then remembered my phone. I pulled it from my pocket grateful for the waterproof feature and opened my compass app. Cell towers over a flat distance can broadcast up to forty-five miles so I should be able to get coordinates. The app showed not only an accurate compass but also longitude and latitude. I realized I had actually been swimming west-northwest and was sighting my return path when there was a disturbance in the water twenty feet from me and I slid the phone back in my pocket so I could prepare for whatever it was.

I froze as I realized something very large had just come close to the surface on my right. Seconds later a great big whale broke the surface, spouted air and then floated at the surface breathing for a moment with a smaller whale right beside it following suit. Suddenly the water was breaking on both sides of me and I got a good look as twelve or fifteen different whales surrounded me. They had big heads and bumps instead of fins on their backs. I could see they were up to thirty feet long as they came up for air. There were several smaller calves in the group and I forced my breath to remain steady as I slid my phone back out of my pocket and took pictures.

For thirty feet in every direction there were huge whales surrounding me, just floating at the surface breathing. These were sperm whales, majestic in stature, the largest of the toothed whales. I remembered that they ate meat, but that they tended to feed in the depths of the ocean not at the surface and though they looked like they could swallow me in one gulp most of them just continued on their way. They tended to rise and float on the surface breathing for a few before making their really deep dives.

As the other whales moved on, one smaller curious calf surfaced about fifteen feet from me. It looked like it was about ten to twelve feet in length, floating at the surface for several moments as if examining me and I got a really good picture of it underwater.

We stayed there floating in the water looking at each other for long moments and I wondered if he was thinking I was some kind of new food. Suddenly less than five feet from me a huge whale surfaced as if I could be some kind of threat, or maybe I was a shiny object and momma whale was getting between us to gain the baby's attention.

I slowly moved my arms getting further away from her, I say her because her attention seemed to be more on the baby than on me. Moments that seemed like a lifetime passed and there were loud clicking noises so close I could feel the vibration of them in my body, rattling my teeth, then just as suddenly they were diving again. The little lost human in the middle of the sea forgotten. I was so moved by their beauty, their innocence, their curiosity. Certainly, they knew I was here long before they surfaced and still they came around me.

I was astonished and grateful for that moment of exhilarated peace that these gentle giant creatures showed me. They don't go running around the ocean hurting each other and they have much larger brains than ours. It reminded me of how small we humans are in this vast world we think we rule. Of course, if mama whale thought I was a threat I know she wouldn't have hesitated to remove me and I knew in that moment so clearly my small role in the world.

I was one small pawn, one little piece in this great big world, so small I am compared to these giants. All the horrible things I had done for the government to make the world a safer, better place, to protect my country, to protect my family, were made smaller by the greater horrors my actions protected against. The guilt, self-revulsion and recrimination for how some of those things were achieved and the lives I have taken, that has hung over me for years, seemed to lessen. I somehow felt absolved in a way for all those things, because a huge gentle whale that could end me in a moment, and would have with no guilt or feelings what-so-ever, didn't, that I was spared to continue my undeserving path in life. I now felt like I had received a nod from God, from the universe, from some force far greater than myself, that my path though occasionally bloody was approved.

After several minutes of this self-introspection I was aware that I was a very small fish in a giant ocean and that I should move myself back towards land; lest something else with teeth come along. I once again sighted my course and started my smooth even strokes back to the island. An hour into my swim my phone started vibrating, kept vibrating for several rings and I paused mid-stroke to answer it.

"Yo." I had looked at the readout and knew it was Stephanie.

"Where are you?"

"Babe," I floated, catching my breath. "I went for a swim."

"But it's been over two hours." She huffed.

"Babe I really like to swim and wasn't watching the time. I'm on my way back." I answered her even as I became aware of a pod of spotted dolphins frolicking a hundred feet to my left.

"and you're okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine. Just went for a long swim. I'm probably twenty minutes away."

"Still?" she questioned.

"Babe I'm okay, I'm on my way back." I repeated as I watched one dolphin jump high into the air.

"Okay I'll be watching for you and when you get back I want to make that call."

"Sure." I told her and disconnected. These waterproof phones were awesome, not that we needed them at RangeMan. I hadn't gotten them for my men, but it would be nice to know that if one of my men had to go in the water after someone their phones would still work. I stayed there floating for just a few more minutes, watching the dolphin fins and beaks pierce the surface of the water as they played and taking pictures of their fun.

I reconfirmed my direction with the compass app and took off through the water again. Eventually I saw trees poking up out of the water and kept to my pace. A few minutes later I could see the island. As I approached I watched out for the speed boat that was cruising around to my left pulling someone in the tube. I kept going and soon I could touch bottom and make out all the people on the beach, see Stephanie standing there my binoculars in her hand, towel wrapped around her waist.

"I was worried you got eaten by some shark." She yelled to me. I just smiled and waved my hand to her. I was catching my breath, I hadn't gone running this morning and now my body felt energized, even as my arms were a little tired. I got a towel from the shortened stack and began to dry myself off. I smiled as I examined the large two to three-foot-high intricately built sandcastles along the shore. I stood in front of them. They were all at least a foot higher than when I left, but the creators were now playing in the ocean.

Stephanie came over to me hands on hips. "You could have been eaten out there!" she exclaimed, worry plain to see on her face.

"I'm fine, didn't see any sharks but I did see some whales and dolphins." I told her. I pulled out my phone and showed her the pictures as I took a seat in one of the beach chairs, while I dried off some more. She pulled up a chair right next to me and flipped through the pictures.

"Wow, that's awesome and they are right up next to you. Did you touch one?' She asked.

"No none were that close, but this last one here was only five feet from me." She then got to the pictures of the dolphins and smiled, "You are one lucky man. I'll bet there were sharks out there but they saw it was you and knew better. They knew you'd be tough and rangy instead of plump and sweet." She smiled at me as she flipped through the pictures again.

"Babe you wanted to make that call?"

"Yes, I guess. I just really want to hear him tell me the truth." She took the towel off her hips and put on her cover-up. I followed suit pulling on my black RangeMan tank top.

"Let's go." I led the way back to our cabana got the sat phone and handed it to her. She took it from me and went into the bathroom. I could hear her talking quietly through the door and I had to wonder if he would lie to her. He'd have to know if she was asking that I had told her about his extra-curricular activities and that I had told her to persuade her to sleep with me or at least help her not to feel so guilty for sleeping with me while we were gone. I got a bottle of water from the mini cooler and sat on the end of the bed, licked my salty, slightly chapped lips and tried to listen in.

"What do you mean you thought I knew." Her raised voice came through the door.

"But I haven't been sleeping with him."

"No, I've only slept with him a few times, total, the whole time I've known him."

"No Joe like only four times. I don't go jump in his bed every time we fight."

"Four-time periods. I'm counting Hawaii as one."

"You've been sleeping with untold numbers of women, whenever we break up and you're mad that I slept with him four times?" She practically yelled.

"Even while we were together?" Her voice got softer.

"No, I know what an open relationship means, but I just assumed since I wasn't seeing anyone else you weren't either."

"But we were supposed to be getting married. You were supposed to be saving for a ring. Remember engaged to be engaged, what happened to that?"

"Sowing your oats? Sowing your oats? At what point were you going to stop sowing and get serious?"

"I don't think that you can be serious about me and be sleeping with other women."

"I know we fight and break up a lot, but we always get back together. We don't fight because we don't care about each other, we fight over my job, and me not wanting to be a housewife."

"Yeah and over him and his cars."

Her voice got quiet again.

"NO! I mean it this time! It's Over! I love you Joe, but I can't do this. I lived through Dickie cheating and I swore I would never do that again. I can't live through it."

"Hawaii wasn't planned it just kinda happened. You were the one that was supposed to come with me on that trip."

"I told you I saw The Rug's wife. I followed her-"

"We were there undercover-"

"He only came to help me."

"You act like you weren't sleeping with anybody else."

"Well you sleeping around just because you think I'm sleeping with him isn't an excuse because I haven't been running off to sleep with him."

"Your stomach problems turned out to be an allergy, not caused by me."

"I don't know what to tell you." She sounded defeated, "I know I agreed to an open relationship, but I didn't know you were exercising that right. I didn't take it seriously."

"I understand you have a high libido, but I refuse to have sex with someone who is screwing other people."

"It's none of your business if I've slept with him. With all of your running around I don't think you get to have a say."

"Well honestly, if you have to know, we've slept together every night since I was kidnapped." She said defensively.

"Well you couldn't keep me safe in your bed and he can keep me safe in his."

"Yes, I know they were his maniacs and you got your arm broken."

"How do you figure it was my fault?"

"Well from now on your bed will be safe 'cause I won't be in it!"

I just sat there waiting for her to come out but there was just silence from the other side of the door. Then I heard her murmuring again and I figured she needed sometime alone, but I didn't want to leave and have her think I abandoned her. I threw my empty bottle in the bedside trash and got up to get another cold bottle of water out of the small two-shelf refrigerator. I kicked off my flipflops and sat with my back to the headboard, legs stretched out on the bed crossed at the ankles.

Fifteen minutes later she came out and handed me the phone. She had obviously been crying.

"You're right and Mary Lou didn't tell me because she thought I knew. He's been telling everyone that we had an open relationship so they thought I was okay with him sleeping around because apparently they thought I was having you on the side too."

"I don't know how my life gets screwed up like this all the time." She sat on the bottom of the bed turned away from me, her arms waving in the air. "I'm going along thinking my life is just fine and then whammy something comes along to screw it up." She paused. "Actually, this has been happening since Hawaii. He said that's when he knew I was sleeping with you. He had been suspecting it for a while."

"He says he doesn't love any of them, that he's not serious with them, that he only loves me. But he isn't actually saving up for a ring right now, he's saving up to finish his new garage. Put in drywall instead of the bare studs, shelves, an automatic garage door opener and paint the interior. That we have plenty of time to save up for a ring." She paused and hung her head, shoulders slumped, hands in her lap.

"I thought we had something serious, something special. He's the first man I fell in love with since Dickie. I thought he was okay with the on again, off again thing, that we both needed to take breaks. But I thought eventually we would get married. We've been talking about it forever. Well he has been talking about it; I had actually been avoiding it. It sounded good for the future just not anything I wanted to get tied down with right now." She sighed and looked at me. "What am I going to do now? I'm going to be a washed up single old maid that nobody ever wanted." She started crying again and I scooted down to the end of the bed and held her. Pulling her onto my lap and enfolding her in my arms, resting my head against the side of hers.

"Babe, I know it hurts but it's going to be alright."

"No, my mother's right, I'm just going to get old alone and never have anybody really love me." She sniffled.

"I was under the impression that you didn't really want to get married, that you were happy being single and doing your own thing."

"Well for now, but eventually I thought I'd get married. I thought I'd have a ring." I couldn't help myself, part of me wondered if it was too soon, since she just broke up with him, but another part of me said she was crying because she didn't have a ring and I could give her a ring.

I slid her back off my lap and went to my bag to pull the little box from the side pocket and walked back over, noticing she was wiping away tears and not paying attention to what I was doing. I sat back down on the bed next to her and pulled her back onto my lap, lifting her head to look at me.

"Babe this is for when you are ready. I'm not trying to rush you, I just want you to know where I stand." and I set the box in her hand. She just stared at the box for a long moment and I worried that it was too soon. I know that she and the cop have been dancing around marriage forever. Practically since they started seeing each other it has been a topic of discussion. She always seems to run when it starts getting serious and I don't know if it's her subconscious running away from him because deep down she knows it would never work, that she would not be happy as a burg housewife, or if after her first disastrous marriage she has a deeper fear and aversion of the institution itself.

Maybe we could date for a year and get engaged next year. That would give her time to meet more of my family and get used to them, and me time to prove to her mother and father that I am an acceptable choice. I know if it was Jewels I wouldn't want her around anyone as dangerous as me or someone who has as many dangerous men after him as I do. I want her to have a normal safe life, marry an accountant or something. Stephanie's life never seems safe but this would put crosshairs on her like she's never seen. If they think they can hurt me with her it will paint a big target on her forehead.

A year would give me time to assess the situation, see how many make a move on her, see where the threats would come from and then put out warnings to anyone who would hurt her about what will happen if a hair on her head is harmed. I looked down at her hands where she was just staring at the box mumbling to herself out loud. I was worried as she was still sitting there unmoving, so I leaned closer to hear her personal dialog.

"A ring. He got me a ring. He says he doesn't do relationships but he bought me a ring. He must be ready for some kind of relationship if he bought a ring. He must have been thinking about this for some time if he already had a ring. He must be thinking about it with me now because he brought this ring with him on this trip. Do I want a ring? I know I was crying because I didn't have a ring but that was more about Joe and the fact that he has been cheating on me. And because he isn't even saving up for a ring." She took a deep breath and then just kept going oblivious to the fact that she was mumbling this all out loud.

"But do I want Joe to save up for a ring? I mean I thought I wanted him to be saving up for a ring but I also have been living in fear that one day he was going to show up with one and I would have to say 'yes' because we have been talking about it for so long and it is just expected by our families that one day we were going to get married. Do I love Joe? Yes. But do I really want to marry Joe?"

There was a long pause. Then she took a deep breath and repeated. "Do I want to marry Joe? I don't know. We were good in the bedroom, and we get along okay. But really, I have been afraid that he would ask and it would ruin what we have because honestly, I'm afraid to marry Joe. I like Joe, but fundamentally we want different things. I like my job. I want to work. I don't know that I'll ever want to have kids and I can't cook to save my life. Besides my once a week cleaning spree on my apartment I don't like to clean and I'm really not good at laundry. I usually take my laundry to my mom and leave it for her. I mean I'm doing her a favor giving her something else to do with her day and more things to iron. I've never done Joes laundry." She stopped again and laughed to herself.

"Ranger gave me a ring and I'm stupidly thinking about Joe's laundry." She shook her head as if to dislodge the thought, her wild curls flailing about. "Ranger has Ella to do his laundry. Ranger has Ella to cook and clean. He would never ask me to do his laundry or cook him dinner. Even if I could cook, he'd probably never eat anything I would cook anyway. Too much fat and sugar in anything I would make." She laughed to herself and returned to staring at the box still not having opened it.

"Babe?"

"I'm getting there... I'm getting there. It's just so unexpected. I never knew you felt this way. I never knew you ever thought about marriage with me. Thought about it enough to buy a ring. Joe has been talking about it for years and has never bought me a ring. It's just…it's just that I want this ring. I know if I open it I'm going to want it and I don't know if I'm ready for that. If I'm ready for that with you. Opening this ring is as good as saying yes and I need to know inside that I am ready to say yes." She looked up at me. "I have had occasional thoughts about being married to you for a long time, I just thought they were dreams, a fantasy, that it never could be real."

"Babe I slipped up one time and told you I thought about marrying you. Then I tried to take it back. To change it to sharing a closet with you. But obviously in my heart I really thought about a life with you."

"When I walked down the aisle to you at Kensey and Amanda's wedding rehearsal I knew I could marry you. I would love living with you. I would love to share your closet and I love your sheets. I love Ella's cooking. But it never seems real to me when I stay with you. I don't know if I can live like that for real." She went back to staring at the box and I knew I was right it was too soon for her. I prepared to take it out of her hands when she surprised me by raising her head, lifting the box up and slowly opening the lid.

To be continued…

A/N: Thank you! Thank you! Thank you all for your reviews! They are all loved and appreciated. Happy New Years! May you have a Wonderful beginning to 2018!

As always big THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! to my beta Sassysaint who makes my stories more readable. You are AWESOME! THANK YOU! Couldn't do it with-out you!

Second Big THANK YOU to my sister, Jonelle. Who is giving my stories a thorough technical analysis (ie deep proof reading) Thank you for offering great suggestions and fixing all my commas, apostrophes, and all my many other little mistakes. THANK YOU! THANK YOU!


	15. Chapter 15 The not a proposal proposal

Chapter 15 The not a proposal proposal

" _Babe?"_

" _I'm getting there. I'm getting there. It's just so unexpected. I never knew you felt this way. I never knew you ever thought about marriage with me. Thought about it enough to buy a ring. Joe has been talking about it for years and has never bought me a ring. It's just…it's just that I want this ring. I know if I open it I'm going to want it and I don't know if I'm ready for that. If I'm ready for that with you. Opening this ring is as good as saying yes and I need to know inside that I am ready to say yes." She looked up at me. "I have had occasional thoughts about being married to you for a long time, I just thought they were dreams, a fantasy, that it never could be real."_

" _Babe I slipped up one time and told you I thought about marrying you. Then I tried to take it back. To change it to sharing a closet with you. But obviously in my heart I really thought about a life with you."_

" _When I walked down the aisle to you at Kensey and Amanda's wedding rehearsal I knew I could marry you. I would love living with you. I would love to share your closet and I love your sheets. I love Ella's cooking. But it never seems real to me when I stay with you. I don't know if I can live like that for real." She went back to staring at the box and I knew I was right it was too soon for her. I prepared to take it out of her hands when she surprised me by raising her head, lifting the box up slowly and opening the lid._

Inside was a three-carat solitaire in a platinum setting, with a heart shaped diamond on either side, each followed by three more round diamonds. "I understand you're not ready for this, but I saw this ring and thought of you, the only woman to ever touch my heart. I knew if I was ever going to get married it would be to you and I bought it because I have always harbored dreams of a life with you, I just didn't think it was possible. I didn't think it would be safe. I didn't think it would be fair to you. But this is how I feel: I love you and I want you in my life. So, when you're ready I have a ring for you."

"You're asking me to marry you?"

"No, not right now. This isn't even getting engaged to be engaged. This is me telling you I love you and when you're ready I have a ring for you. We can just start dating now and get engaged in a couple of months." I was saying as I reached to take the box out of her hands and she cupped her hands around it and held it away from me.

"No way mister. You don't go hand a girl a ring and then try to rip it out of her hands." I dropped my hand and she brought the box back down to her lap.

"So, you're not asking me to marry you?"

"Not this moment. I'm just telling you that it's something I am wanting in the future."

"But you handed me a ring."

"I wanted you to know I am serious. I'm not just all talk."

"So, you want to get married?"

"When you are ready. I'm not trying to rush you and I know this is a big decision and you just broke up-" Abruptly, her mouth was on mine and her arms were wrapped around my neck and she was kissing me for all she was worth. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her close, delving into her mouth. I was shocked. She had never been one to instigate kissing. I could count on one hand the number of times she has instigated anything and she tended to go straight for the goods.

After several minutes she pulled away, breathing heavy. I leaned my forehead against hers and looked deeply into her clear blue eyes. "Stephanie, I love you. I want you for always." She smiled at me.

"So now do I get the ring?"

"Do you want the ring?" I was surprised again.

"Of course, it is a beautiful ring. And it matches my watch, they both have hearts." I stood her up, took the ring out of the box, put it into my pocket and slipped my flip flops back on. I took her hand and led her out the door. I was headed for a deserted section of the beach. I wanted this to be real and memorable for her.

I stopped along the beach just between two palm trees, about thirty feet from the aqua blue waters crashing softly against the shore and turned to look her in the eyes taking both her hands in mine. I took the ring I had made on the ship off the forth finger of her left hand and slid it on the fourth finger of her right. This was going to be one of the most important speeches of my life; I had to get this right.

"Stephanie Michelle Plum, you are the most beautiful thing in my life." She smiled at me. "I have loved you since I met you and I will love you till the end of time. I want to wake up next to you every morning and hold you in my arms every night. But," I hesitated, this was the hard part but I couldn't pull any punches. She had to know the truth of what this would mean. "My life is filled with dangers. If you agree to this union you need to realize that this is not going to be the first time someone comes after you. There will always be a long line of my enemies trying to get to you to punish me. I will do everything in my power to make you safe. If you can live with that, if you can love me forever, if you can trust me to protect you."

I got down on one knee, pulled the ring from my pocket and held it out to her. "Stephanie will you marry me?" Her smile continued to get bigger the longer I talked then she simply said "Yes."

I took her left hand and slid the ring on it as tears welled up in her eyes. I stood and kissed her hand where the ring now lived and then took her in my arms kissing her like there was no tomorrow. I pulled her body into mine as I ground my hard length up against her knowing that we were finally beginning our someday today.

If someone had told me last Sunday I would be proposing to Stephanie in one week on a tropical isle I would have told them to get their head checked because they were delusional, she was back with Morelli and I never thought anything was going to break their on-again off-again cycle. I never thought she would be safer with me than away from me.

Now I was mentally preparing for a long engagement. I know my mama has always given me grief for not seeing me get married the first time and Stephanie's family will expect another large Catholic wedding. It was April, the soonest I could see us marrying would be the end of summer, maybe early fall, otherwise we could wait till next year. I wasn't big into snow (think dirty slush) covered weddings. I wanted it to be decent outdoors and we could go somewhere tropical for our honeymoon.

We broke apart and a smile was still splitting Stephanie's face. "Ready to go tell my family?" I asked her and she looked at me astonished. I guess she hadn't thought far enough ahead to telling people.

"How about we wait till dinner, then everyone will be together and we can tell them all at once." She suggested.

I nodded to her. I wasn't in any hurry and I could wait for Angelia and Oshanna to get a look at the ring. Angelia was very proud of her two-carat custom-made ring and Stephanie's three-carat, over five total weight, diamond ring will make her twist in her designer panties.

"Ranger-"

"Carlos, Babe, Carlos."

"Carlos, you need to work on your numbers, your counting is off," she smiled widely at me. "I have already been taken four times by your enemies, this latest threat is the fifth."

I looked at her seriously. "Can you live with it Babe? It's only going to get worse not better." I told her hesitant of her reply.

"Ranger, you have always told me about the dangers of your life. I have seen them firsthand and I trust you to keep me safe. By the way when did you buy the ring?" She held her hand up so she could look at it again.

"After Hawaii. Babe if I wasn't so worried about your safety I would have asked you a long time ago. I thought by keeping my distance I was keeping you safe."

"You've had this ring since Hawaii and you never told me, you never asked me?"

"Hawaii was really special to me. It showed me the kind of life I could have if I wasn't me. And Dios I wanted it. I wanted you, but there is a reason I carry two guns and a knife." I took her hand and led her down to the edge of the water while we talked. "Stephanie there is something I have never told you about myself. While I was a Ranger…" and I told her about the leak in SOCOM and Emilio and my records that keep showing up online. The long list of people who want me dead, the hits that are already out there and the people that may target her next.

"If you want to rethink this whole marriage thing I would understand." I told her at the end. Pulling her to face me so I could look into those deep blue eyes. She looked clearly up at me unfazed by what I had told her.

"Carlos, it has always been you. When you walked in and Scrog shot you, I knew that you would do anything for me and that… and that…and that…." She took a deep breath, "I love you. I'm not going to say that I don't love Joe because I do…well I did." She hesitated. "But I have always loved you more, wanted you more. I could never give you up just because he wanted me to. I needed you more than I ever needed him. For the longest time, I have been telling myself that you were my best friend, the one I could always turn to, the one that I could always count on. That doesn't change or go away just because there are some bad guys out to get you. Heck there always seems to be somebody after me, what's a few more nut jobs added to the roll." She smiled at me that perfect, innocent, mischievous smile and I pulled her into my arms and held her tight.

This was one of my secrets, when it first happened only people with top security clearance knew about the leak at SOCOM. But after the third massive release it was picked up by CNN and other news agencies so they can't say the public, at some point, wasn't told. These were my family's lives, I'm still not sure I should have told them the truth but really, they deserved to know the extent of the danger. I would rather them be aware and looking over their shoulders than obliviously getting kidnapped. Now that she knew and accepted the danger I could move on to keeping her safe.

I would convince her to go through self-defense training, some martial arts and more weapons training. She's not a bad shot she just hates guns, if I can get her more comfortable with them, maybe get her to carry one on her hip, and definitely get her a concealed carry license since when she does carry it's always in her bag. She was pulling away from me and I let her go bringing myself back to the present.

"Babe, we have an hour and," I looked at my watch, "twenty minutes till dinner. What do you want to do?"

She pulled me close again and ground her hips against mine, she turned my head and whispered in my ear. "Maybe we should go back to our cabana and make sure it's secure." And then she tugged on my earlobe with her teeth and bit down sending a painful zing through my body. I jerked away in reaction, even as my dick was suddenly throbbing hard and took her hand pulling her back the way we had come. After last night, I figured she would be too sore, but now she was acting like an alley cat in heat and I couldn't wait to get her back and make love to her as my fiancé.

We were walking back between the cabanas across from ours when my parents walked in front of us. They were headed back down to the beach and stopped when they saw us.

" _Mi'jo_ we are going to play some more volleyball why don't you come and join us."

"Maybe in a little bit, Mama. We are going to get something important from the cabana right now." I told them and kept pulling Stephanie along. I looked back to see her turning five shades of red and smiled. I could juggle my family and have bedroom time with her. We could sneak it in.

I opened the door to our cabana and turned the overhead fans on. There was no air conditioning in the cabanas, the little solar powered cells on the roof didn't have enough juice to power one for long and if run at night would have drained the batteries too quickly. I pushed Stephanie up against the door and started pulling her clothes off as I attacked her mouth.

I wanted her and I wanted her now. She was mine, now and forever and I just wanted to be inside her. Her cover-up offered no resistance and her bathing suit was gone in a flash, I don't even know where it landed. I grabbed her hands and held them up above her head and growled, "Mine" and started kissing every part of her I could reach. When I got down to her breasts I released her hands and grabbed her torso and lifted her up to meet my mouth.

***************SMUT***************

I sucked, nibbled, left marks and teased her tips till they were hard little pebbles. Then I bit down gently and then harder pulling on her firm breasts as I loved them. I set her down, grabbed her around the waist and quickly picked her up again kissing down her belly as I went. She tensed, and squealed and grabbed my arms bracing herself upright. The ceilings in these cabanas were tall, obviously made that way for circulation. Right now, I was very grateful for the height, few rooms were tall enough for me to take her like this.

I kept lifting her up, until her apex was in front of me then pinned her against the door holding her still. I teased her with several soft kisses to the small bush of hair that was there and then I moved lower, slower, kissing her repeatedly and then spreading her with my tongue.

Dios, she was so warm and wet, sea salty and Stephanie sweet. It was like I was tasting my favorite warm pie right out of the oven. I couldn't get enough, tonguing and thrusting and sucking on her little nub. She tilted her head back against the door and moaned, spreading her legs wider, thrusting her hips out to meet my mouth. "Carlos" she moaned, her hands tightening on my arms and her hips forced away from the door to my mouth. Damn, I needed some fingers but none were available at the moment.

I lifted her a fraction higher, getting my tongue up underneath her and stroking while I kissed her lips with mine. I practically had her sitting on my mouth and I knew we would do this again in a bed, her kneeling over me. I loved eating her and right now she was loving it too as her thighs tightened and she groaned. Her head began moving back and forth and there it was, the low guttural groan that signaled her release. I didn't stop for a second knowing my reward was coming.

A moment later she was dripping wet and I lapped it up knowing she was getting more tenderized as I did so. Finally, she was calling to me. "Carlos, Ranger please." I pulled my head back and smiled a shiny wet full-on smile, like the cat that ate the canary and lapped up all of the milk, and slowly lowered her back to the ground.

Her legs were wobbly underneath her so I just picked her up, carried her to the bedroom and laid her out on the bed. My clothes were gone in the next second and I was on top of her kissing her again. She squirmed underneath me and turned her head. "Carlos, Carlos, let me catch my breath." She whimpered and I let my head drop to her forehead.

She lifted my head, wiping at my mouth with her hands. "You're all wet." she said and smiled at me. "There's no rush, we have forever now." And then she kissed me very slow and thoroughly, I immediately got involved in kissing her back. Holding some of my weight off her so I don't crush her even as I rub my length up and down where she is so wet. A few minutes later and I can't wait any more.

I pull away, get up on my knees and slide a condom on. I push her legs further apart and then I am inside her, Dios she is so tight, and wet and warm. I freeze once again as I let her adjust to my size and hold myself away. I could come right now, just being inside her is so fulfilling. Of course, then it would all be over in less than a minute and I'm not ready to disappoint her like that. I took a deep breath and relaxed back into my steely control.

I looked into the depths of her eyes and started to move. Slowly out, slowly in, creating an even easy rhythm that I could maintain. I watched her smiling face. She was mine, she said yes, she knew the risks and still said yes. She trusts me to take care of her and keep her safe and I was never going to let her down again. I built her up until her heels were digging into the bed propelling herself up and I reached down with one hand, sliding it under her butt, tilting her hips up more to meet mine and began really pounding into her. I heard her exhale first, then the air catch going back in and I knew what was coming next.

A few more strokes and she tightened underneath me and began to groan and instead of stopping like I would usually do, I pounded harder until she completely contracted around me and I lost it spurting into her again and again with a groan of my own and my whole body throbbed. The pleasure continued to pulse through me and I felt like I was cumming over and over again. With my final release I collapsed on top of her breathing hard.

***************END SMUT***************

A few moments later she tapped my side, her way of saying you're too heavy I can't breathe and I lifted myself up and smiled down into her flushed face and slightly unfocused eyes. She smiled back at me, her eyes becoming a little more focused and I kissed her. _Mio Dios_ , to have her like this every day. To have what we had in Hawaii. I didn't want to leave. I just wanted to stay here on this island with her and be immersed in her.

I rolled over onto my right side and watched her lay there and catch her breath. She looked over at me and smiled again then scooted over until her soft supple body was pressed up right next to my hard one. I rolled back a little bit, peeled off the condom and flung it into the bedside trash then I rolled back against her, put my arm around her and pulled her flush to me.

Fifteen minutes later my body was making noises about doing it again but I didn't want to wear her out before tonight. Dinner was now in twenty minutes and she was practically asleep. I nuzzled my face into the side of her neck, her hair slightly tickling my nose.

Another ten minutes went by before I decided to gently shake her shoulder. "Babe, time for dinner." She groaned and I smiled as she stretched herself awake. "Time for a shower." I told her and I got up and went to turn the hot water on. The solar water heater was several buildings away and took a long time to get here so I turned it on straight hot and waited. A few moments later a bumbling half-asleep Stephanie stumbled into the bathroom and I wrapped my arms around her and kissed her on the head.

Hot water showed up with a gust of steam. I adjusted the temperature and dragged Stephanie in with me. Ten minutes later I was sitting by the door while she frantically blew dry her hair afraid someone in the family would think we had taken a shower in the middle of the day and wonder why. I told her to put back on her swimsuit (as soon as we could find it), I would throw her in the ocean and no one would wonder why her hair was wet.

She came out of the bathroom in a huff, the shower not having done enough. Between the sex, the nap, the blow dryer and the humidity her hair was puffed up to epic proportions and her rubber band was just barely containing the riotous curls. "It's Ok Babe, we're not going out anywhere fancy to eat and no one in my family is going to notice your hair, but if its bothering you that bad, swimsuit-ocean option still available." I smiled at her as she frowned, because she had already dressed in khaki shorts, a pink tank top and a pair of brown sandals.

As soon as we walked into dinner I wanted to hold up her hand and announce we were engaged, but figured that would cause an uproar and embarrass Stephanie. Dinner tonight looked like a buffet of Chinese. We picked up plates and got food from the bar and took middle spots at the twenty-foot-long brown, metal picnic bench style table with Oshanna and Julio at one end and Ron, Rachel and their kids at the other.

I sat next to Stephanie, lifted her hand to my mouth and kissed her ring. I still couldn't believe that she dumped him and said yes to me. Even after I told her how dangerous it would be, she still chose me. I smiled inwardly to myself. I'd suspected she loved me for so long but the fact that she has finally said it, twice in two days, and then said yes, my chest felt like it was going to burst open with happiness and pride, she was finally mine, really mine.

Stephanie slid over to Oshanna, whispered to her, and held out her hand which Oshanna took in hers; tilting it back and forth looking at it under the light. Julio reached across the table for her hand and examined the ring, but would not let go as he stroked the back of her hand with his thumb. I wanted to get up, rip her hand away and punch him out, but I knew that Stephanie could handle herself and the sooner she realized he was a _joda_ the happier I would be. _(pain in the ass)_

Stephanie finally yanked her hand away, told him loudly to cut it out that she was happily engaged and Carlos was the better man. Oshanna told Angelia to come see Stephanie's ring. She came right over and took Stephanie's hand and gave her an actual complement instead of a snide remark. Then she looked over to me and said "Good job Carlos, you picked out a very beautiful ring."

This caught the attention of my parents and Leyla who were sitting at the next table over. Mama said she wanted to see and Stephanie went over and leaned across their table to show them the ring. Angelia went back to her seat next to her kids who were seated just one spot down from my parents. My mama suddenly shrieked and stood up, walked around the table kissed Stephanie on both cheeks and hugged her tightly. My father was right behind her, as my mother passed Stephanie to him and came over to me.

"Carlos, you got engaged and you didn't even tell us." She lightly scolded. I got up to face her and she embraced me hard.

"Mama it just happened this evening we haven't been engaged two whole hours."

"Now we know what was so much more important than a volleyball game." She smiled up at me and turned to the room. "Everyone who hasn't heard, Carlos and Stephanie got engaged. He got her a beautiful ring you have to see!"

A/N To see the ring go to my Pinterest page www dot pinterest dot com/rangerbabe21/saving-all-my-women/

Julie jumped to her feet and ran over to me. "Did you really ask her? You two are finally together for good?"

"Yes Jewels. We are together for good." She hugged me and went to go see Stephanie and her ring. I watched my family mob Stephanie and remembered something my dad once told me. _'A wedding ring is for life, something that she looks at every day, but it is something that all her friends and family see and judge you by so it needs to be something special from your heart.'_ I hadn't thought about this when I bought the ring but it holds true right now.

Leyla came around the table to hug Stephanie and look at her ring, then came to hug me and tell me, "You did good _hermano_." Stephanie was passed around for hugs and I went to sit by my _abuelas_.

" _Abuela esta tarde le pedí a Estefania que se casara conmigo y ella dijo que sí."_ I told them _._ _(Abuelas, this afternoon I asked Stephanie to marry me and she said yes.)_

" _Felicidades pequeña que finalmente estás creciendo_." Grandma Sanja told me as she got up to kiss me on the cheek and give me a hug. _(Congratulations little one you are finally growing up.)_

Grandma Rosa kissed me, hugged me and looked me in the eyes. _"_ _Ella es buena. Bien por usted. Ella te hace sonreír, sana tu corazón. Desde que la conociste eres un hombre mejor. Bendiciones en tu matrimonio y todos tus bebés._ _" (She is good. Good for you. She makes you smile, heals your heart. Since you met her you are a better man. Blessings on your marriage and all your babies.)_

She took me by the hand and led me over to where Isabella was gushing over Stephanie's ring. "How many carats is it? I know that's no one-carat ring." Isabella was saying.

"I don't know, I didn't ask." Stephanie said.

"Woman, don't you know anything, that's the first thing you ask! Preferably before you say yes." Angelia who had joined the circle said. "Carlos, how many carats is this ring?" She asked me.

"The diamond or the whole ring?"

"Both" she answered.

"Three carat diamond. Five in the whole ring." I explained and Stephanie was gob struck.

Grandma Rosa went up to her and took both of her hands, _"Estefania,_ _eres una buena mujer, buena para nuestro Carlos. Bendiciones en tu matrimonio y en,"_ she put her hand on Stephanie's stomach _, "tu vientre. Que usted sea feliz y tenga muchos bebés_ _."_

I translated after she spoke. "Stephanie, you are a good woman, good for our Carlos. Blessings on your marriage," She still had her hand on Stephanie's stomach, "and your womb. May you be happy and have lots of babies."

Stephanie smiled at Grandma Rosa even as she looked uncomfortable. Then she glanced at me, wariness in her eyes. We had not directly discussed it but I knew how she felt about children from her complaining about Morelli and his desire to have them. Stephanie rose to any challenge presented to her, but the idea of children scared her. All she saw were other people's kids being noisy and messy and uncontrollable and she didn't know how to handle it.

I can only say for most parents something happens when that little bundle is placed in your arms that changes your whole world view on the messiness and problems of raising that baby. I know my whole world changed but I didn't raise Julie so I couldn't vouch for the messiness and problem parts. I only knew that there wasn't anything I wouldn't do for her. I would have to reassure Stephanie that she didn't need to worry. Bringing a baby into my extremely dangerous life would be like waving a red flag before the bull to my enemies who want to hurt me. Not something I can ever imagine doing hence the two boxes of condoms.

When my family released Stephanie, I took her into my arms and looked into those deep blue eyes and smiled at her my full-on smile. "Babe" was all I needed to say and with it said _'I love you, I understand you, no worries, it will all be okay.'_ I led her back to the table and we started eating again.

"So, when is the wedding?" Oshanna asked. We hadn't discussed any of this yet so I was interested in what Stephanie would say.

"Um," Stephanie looked at me and I smiled at her.

"Whatever you want Babe." I told her.

"Well we'll just have to see. First, we have to tell my parents and see what they say. I expect that they are going to want to rent the VFW hall and reserve the church so it's going to depend on when places are available." She looked at me and I nodded back at her.

This would end up being our mothers' three-ringed circus, certain that my mother would get involved and Stephanie's mother probably already had it half planned, just waiting on the ring. I would help Stephanie through it, be supportive while her mother drove her nuts, show up in my tux on the appointed day and whisk her away for a wonderful honeymoon. Somewhere warm and tropical where she's never been.

My mother, Leyla, and Isabella all came over with their dinners, my mother sitting next to Stephanie, Leyla and Isabella across the table. One glance at Angelia and I could tell she was upset at being left out, but her kids were too hands on to leave alone.

"So, what are your colors?" Isabella asked.

"Um, I don't know. Carlos's color is black so black and something I guess."

"What's your favorite flower?"

"Ugh," Stephanie grunted quietly to herself and I patted the back of her hand.

"I know you all mean well, but we just got engaged and haven't discussed any of this stuff. Besides, her mother has been waiting years for this; she probably has a wedding mostly planned." I told them.

"Planning it is the best part of any wedding, you get to do it for months where the wedding is over in hours. What is your favorite animal or pattern? Do you like sparkles?" Mama asked.

"I'll let you guys and my mom do all the planning; I will get my nails and hair done and show up on time." Stephanie said.

"That's great, we have lots of ideas but you will want to give us a little input." Isabella said and turned the phone she had been frantically working on, laying it in front of Stephanie. "Here are some basic ideas to get a color palate. Here is green and black, here is royal blue and black, here is baby blue and black, here's turquoise and black, here is red and black, here is pink and black, here is purple and black and finally peach and black."

"Definitely not red and black it looks like something out of a horror movie." Stephanie said. "Not green that looks like a weird garden, the blue or a baby pink, the darker pink looks like a bordello. Not really the baby blue more like a medium, bright or shiny blue. The turquoise is nice but it looks like people have done it a bunch." She looked closely at one bouquet. "I really like the use of these black feathers. It needs some other flowers though, too."

"This is what you need to do." Mama took Stephanie's hand. "Close your eyes and imagine it is your wedding day. Just answer with whatever comes to your mind first. You're putting on your dress, what color is it?"

"White"

"Silk, tulle, satin or lace?"

"Silk"

"Pick up your flowers. What color are they?"

"Blue or purple or pink and black, with hearts and feathers."

"Your dad comes to walk you down the aisle, describe what he is wearing."

"A tux"

"Okay, you open the doors to the church. Look down the aisle, what do you see?"

"Carlos."

"And what is he wearing"

"A tux."

"Who are your bridesmaids?"

"Lula and Mary Lou and if she wants to, my sister. And maybe her daughters as flower girls and Julie if she wants to. I would really like Julie to be involved with the wedding. Maybe we should ask her what her favorite color is." Stephanie said. "Julie, bring your dinner down here."

Julie came down the table and sat across kitty corner from Stephanie.

"Julie, we don't have any definite plans yet but I would like you to be involved in the wedding. What is your favorite color?"

"Blue." Julie quickly replied, smiling.

"Would you like to be in the wedding party, like one of the bridesmaids?"

"Absolutely. That would be awesome. I can be the flower girl or a junior bridesmaid."

"Sure, Julie if you want to. You are the third most important person in this wedding whatever you want we will try to do." Stephanie said.

"Balloons, there should be lots of balloons." Julie gushed.

"It sounds like blue and black are our colors, feathers, hearts and balloons. Any other questions?"

"Well the first question on this check list is your budget." Isabella said.

"Carlos?" Stephanie turned to me.

"No budget." I told them.

"No budget? What does that mean?" Leyla asked.

"It means whatever Stephanie wants she gets." I said.

"$30,000? $50,000? There has to be a limit." Leyla pushed.

"Leyla, Mama, Isabella, just focus on what Stephanie, Julie and Stephanie's mom want. Her mom has to be happy in this. I'm not having my in-laws pissed off over something stupid from the start." I leaned over to Stephanie. "Babe don't think about the money, just plan the wedding you will be happy with. We are only doing it once and it is forever, so no budget."

I know if I tell my family a number like $30,000 it will cost me $50,000. If I say $50,000 they will spend $100,000. If I say $100,000 they will take it as a challenge to spend more than that. Stephanie is financially frugal, if I let her lead the way it will be well within my idea of a healthy wedding budget.

After dinner, the woman retired to the game room. They parked themselves on the two couches and one loveseat set in a semi circle in front of the TV to plan and discuss the wedding. They had already started a new Pinterest page dedicated to the wedding and were all busy on their phones coming up with ideas, showing Stephanie pins they have found and discussing design concepts. Julie, Becky and Maggie all had their phones out searching away, showing each other ideas and giggling.

The boys and dads were sitting on the floor in front of the women playing Nintendo. The younger girls were at the craft table drawing. Both three-year old's were in the ball pit. Julio came over to harass me. "So, you're finally going to tie the knot. Don't you think you are kinda rushing it with Stephanie? She should be free to explore and make sure she is choosing the best man."

"Julio, she's mine, she'll never be yours, suck it up and leave her alone. I catch you harassing her and you won't need an excuse to miss work. I'll do things that will put you out of work for the next six months." I threatened in a low voice.

"Woah, bro. I'm saying she just broke up with her boyfriend and may need time to explore some options."

I got in his face, "She is taken. You see her as the last single woman on this island because there is no one else for you to hit on. Touch her and I will break all three of your legs and getting laid will be the last thing on your mind."

He held up his hands between us, "Chill bro, you've made your point. But really it's her decision to make."

I clinched my fists, just wanting to hit him and if my parents weren't right there I would. "Julio," I held up the key to the liquor cabinet. "Go have a few drinks and get any ideas of Stephanie out of your head before they have to airlift your broken ass off this island."

He grabbed the key from my hand and walked away. I knew as long as we were only engaged he would still hit on Stephanie, but hopefully as he got drunk, she would see through the sham.

Rachel took me aside. "I am happy for you and that ring is something special. You've been through a lot in your life and you've given up a lot for your country. You deserve some good in your life and I think she really loves you. I hope you both will be happy for a long time."

"Thank you, Rachel. I know our marriage wasn't what you wanted but at the time it was all I could give."

"Carlos, you have done more than could ever be expected financially. I'm glad you are finally in Julie's life. She needs your presence more now than anything else you could give her."

"This might not be the best time to ask, but when this is all over, do you think she could come visit us in Trenton, like maybe over the summer?" I asked her.

"I'll have to discuss that with Ron. Maybe not this summer, but she is getting old enough for that."

Half an hour later Stephanie was looking more than a little frazzled and worn out. I walked over to the couch where she was sitting between my mama and my sisters. "Ladies if you don't mind I'm going to steal my fiancé for a walk on the beach. Stephanie?" I held my right hand out to her and she looked relieved, putting her hand in mine. Thanking everyone for their help and telling them she will see them tomorrow.

The quiet waves and light breeze were soothing, as we stared out across the endless water.

"I didn't expect that from my family. Of course, I haven't been around for any of their weddings. I've been on assignment and just sent gifts or money." I explained.

"It was good practice for dealing with my mother. She's going to pin me to the kitchen table for hours while we plan the wedding. With any luck, your family will have it planned before we get back home and I won't have to deal with my obsessive mom." Stephanie said.

"Speaking of your parents, do you want to call and tell them?" I asked.

"Not today. I've had as much family craziness as I can take and I'm not sure how my mother is going to respond because you're not Joe and in her mind, you're the reason I was kidnapped and left town so really I'm not in a hurry to tell her."

I stopped us walking and pulled her into my arms searching her face. "Are you thinking this isn't a good idea?"

"No, God, I don't live to make my mother happy, just ask her: she hates my job, she wants me to be married with a house and several kids. That's what she thinks my life should be, but I would be miserable like that. I would feel trapped, suffocated and hate my life. Spending every day cleaning and cooking would be like torture." Stephanie said looking over my shoulder as if seeing into an almost future.

"So, you're happy to be marrying me?"

"Carlos," She looked into my eyes. "I have loved you for a long time, I just never thought it would ever go anywhere." She smiled at me. "This seems all rather sudden but it feels right. Like I have been waiting for something in a dark room and you just turned the light on. Other people kept offering to turn on the light but it was the wrong person and the wrong light." She laughed. "I don't know if that made any sense. It worked in my head till I said it out loud."

I gave her my half smile. "I understood the analogy. I just want to make sure you're ok with all this and don't feel that it's too much, too fast."

"You mean you don't want me to wake up in the morning and regret this, or give you the ring back and say get lost." She smirked at me. "I would never do that to you." She pulled away and started walking down the beach. "Honestly it all feels a little surreal. Like a fantasy come true. We kinda skipped the whole dating thing, you know where you take me out and then come back and spend the night in my bed. In fact, we have never done that. We skipped right to sex and then we kept being friends with occasional sex and now we're engaged." She looked over at me. "Are you okay with it? We haven't discussed it but I'm just assuming we're going to be living together now. You'll have to give up half of your fabulous closet and I don't know… major crimp in your lifestyle having somebody living with you when you are working all the time."

"I work hard to make my business a success, but besides you there hasn't been much else in my life. Now you're going to play a bigger role and I will probably work a little less. But you have to know now; work can call 24/7 and I have to go. Sometimes out of town, and my contract with the government is almost up but if they call me there are times I can't say no. I'll never be able to tell you where I'm going or how long I'll be gone."

"I've gotten used to you being in the wind. I can't say I like it but you always say goodbye and that's what matters to me."

"I'll always say goodbye." I told her.

We were quiet for several minutes each lost in our thoughts. I finally steered her towards the cabanas, it was almost 20:00. Maybe there was something we could cuddle up and watch on satellite TV. I knew I was leaving in two days, but I rode her hard last night and I didn't want to completely wear her out.

I told a woman that I was seeing while on a two week leave that I had to leave early and she thanked god. She said the sex was too good for her to turn down and she knew she would never see me again, so every time I wanted to go another round she agreed, even though I had worn her lady parts out. I didn't want to do that to Stephanie when we now had forever laid out in front of us.

We cuddled on the couch in front of the TV, there wasn't much on that held my interest, until I found _'The Hunt for Red October'_. I knew Stephanie might not have much interest in it, but there was still two and a half hours of the movie left and that would take us to a more appropriate bedtime. Stephanie was probably a little tired from last night. If we went to bed early I could wake her up throughout the night, and she would still get enough sleep.

Half an hour later I was drawing little circles on Stephanie's belly and working lower when she twisted around on my lap, rubbing against me making me instantly hard. Well harder, I had been hard since she snuggled into my lap but I learned a long time ago that waiting only heightens my desire and for me getting my partner off several times is like an aphrodisiac, only making me want it more. _Dios_. I have waited years for Stephanie. In the past years, taking her every time she would let me and now she was mine.

I kept repeating it to myself because it happened so fast and it's so unbelievable to my mind that part of it still has her compartmentalized as off limits. I pulled her back flush against my chest and started kissing up the side of her neck. Her head tilted away from me giving me easy access and I worked my way back down and nibbled at her pulse point. I licked it before I opened my mouth and bit down causing her to tense against me practically panting.

That was it for the rest of the movie as I took her first right there on the couch, magic condom under the watch to the rescue, and then carried her into the bedroom to take her again. About midnight I took her again and woke up at 2:10 wanting her even more. I pulled her so she was lying half on top of me and started kissing down the side of her face to her ear when my phone beeped, and then beeped and beeped. These were all text messages coming in and I eased Stephanie off of me hoping she could fall right back to sleep and grabbed my phone.

Monday May 18 02:15

Two men reported they heard a boat motor off the northwest part of the island. Marc texted that he was getting up to check it out. I responded that I was on my way and for my men to move to intercept. I texted everyone at lunch to return to their stations. I was dressed and out the door in less than two minutes, flashlight in hand, taking so long because I hadn't turned any lights on in the bedroom.

I was running as soon as I was out the door knowing I was over two and a half miles away. The buildings on the island were located more towards the southern end. "Report" I yelled over the radio and I turned it up so I could hear it clearly as I ran. "Chet sir, started hearing a boat motor about five minutes ago, definitely sounds like it is moving towards the island. Must be running with no lights because there is no visual confirmation."

"Keep moving towards the sound till you have a visual." I told him.

The palmetto was thick in areas and I felt my arms getting scraped up as I crashed through it. I kept running till I could hear the low whine of a small two-cylinder outboard motor going at a consistent speed. I turned my flashlight off as I approached an opening onto the beach and slowed my speed, continually working my way north. Texting to Zip, Zero, Vince and Bobby as I went _'Boat detected coming towards Northwest shore, report immediately no lights_.'

Within a minute I had four responding texts and I heard movement up ahead on the edge of the beach. "Report" I yelled as I ran.

"Chet, Sir, monitoring the north beach." He yelled back as I slowly made my way through the palmettos.

"Continue" I replied.

A few moments later I saw movement to the left of me. "Report"

"Chester, Sir, still can't get a visual but the sound is definitely getting louder."

I broke through the trees but stopped short of the beach. I pulled out my binoculars to scan the ocean. The moon was now three-quarters full and more than two-thirds the way across the sky giving good lighting to see anything approach but I still couldn't see anything. I hunkered down and made my way to the edge of the palmettos to wait.

Three minutes later I could see it, a small boat with what looked like the outlines of two men, slowly heading past our location around the north edge of the island. Their goal may be the east side, the closest beach to the cabanas. I started texting as I heard my men moving to follow. _'Visual confirmation, 2 men, small boat moving across north side of island possibly around to east side. Running without lights. Consider hostile and armed. Prepare to greet. Take alive if possible.'_

I took off following my men around the island, knowing that through the brush we had no chance of keeping up. Eventually the boat moved around the end of the island and I could no longer see it. I broke out onto the beach and took off after them. Five minutes later I heard automatic weapons firing back and forth and the men with me all kicked up our speed a notch.

To be continued…

A/N: I am posting today for the guest reviewer who asked so nicely for me to update. I just happened to have it ready so here it is. Thank you all for all your reviews! So far in this story, chapter 14 and 15 are my favorite chapters. I hope you enjoyed them too. As always please read and review.

As always big THANK YOU to my beta Sassysaint who makes my story better. You are AWESOME! If it weren't for you I never would have started posting! THANK YOU!

Second Big THANK YOU to my sister, Jonelle. Who is giving my stories a thorough technical analysis (ie deep proof reading) Thank you for fixing all my commas, apostrophes, and all my many other little mistakes.

Ranger's Family Album

Mother's Mother – Abuela Rosa, Father's Mother – Abuela Sanja Manoso

Mother – Maria Manoso Father – Javier Manoso

Siblings and families in age order

Leyla (35) & Richard Gonzales – Rebecca (Becky) 12, Margaret (Maggie) 10, Richard (Ricky) 7, Michael (Mikie) 5

Angelia (34) & Jordan White – Shanna 5 – Kendrick (Ricky) 3

Ricardo Carlos Manoso (32) – Ranger

Julio Manoso (30) Ex-wife Allysa – Jacob 2

Isabella (27) & Diego Diaz – Chris 8, Shylia 6, Parker 3

Oshanna Manoso (22)

Rachel & Ron Martine – Julie 12, Fredrico (Freddie) 9, Cassandra (Cassie)6

Trenton Merry Men Assignments (20 Men)

Abuela Sanja – Vince

Abuela Rosa – Manuel

Maria – Erik

Leyla – Hal

Angelia – Woody

Isabella – Cal

Oshanna – Lester

Rachel – Eddie

Julie – Junior

Stephanie – Ranger, Marc

Extras – Bobby, Ram, Zero, Zip

Nights – Chester, Chet, Gino, Mario, Ramon, Ryan


	16. Chapter 16 The Escape

Chapter 16 – The Escape

 _Three minutes later I could see it, a small boat with what looked like the outlines of two men, and a small motor, slowly heading past our location further north around the island maybe even around to the east side, the closest beaches to the cabana's. I started texting as I heard my men moving to follow. 'Visual confirmation, 2 men, small boat moving across north side of island possibly around to east side. Running without lights. Consider hostile and armed. Prepare to greet. Try to take alive if possible.'_

 _I took off following my men around the island knowing that through the brush we had no chance of keeping up. Eventually the boat moved around the end of the island and I could no longer see it. I broke out onto the beach and took off after them. Five minutes later I heard automatic weapons firing back and forth and we all kicked up our speed a notch._

Monday May 18 02:36

The rapid gunfire exchange lasted several seconds, there was a break, another blast of fire then all was deadly silent along the beach. Five minutes later I had come far enough around the island to see a small aluminum dingy with a tiny motor on it pulled up on shore and four men with flashlights patrolling. As I continued to approach at a run I could see they were flashing the 'All OK' signal. A little closer and I could see two of the flashlights illuminating a man who was sitting on the beach not far from the ocean's waves, hands cuffed behind his back.

As we were almost on them I could see two other dead bodies lit up lying on the sandy ground at the edges of the palmetto's. "Report" I said as I neared. "Gino, Sir, that's Mario, Ramon and Ryan. The boat pulled up on shore. Three men got out. We were hiding behind these trees. The men were carrying assault rifles. As they got to the tree-line they saw Mario and we opened fire. While we got these two, the third ran back to the boat. Ryan chased him down and shot him in the back of his right knee."

"Good job men."

I recognized one of the dead men as the Frenchman and the other as one of the men that held Stephanie up while she was getting hit. I clinched my fists, Stephanie was safer now that these men were dead but there was a part of me that felt denied because I hadn't the chance to mete out punishment for that crime before his death. I took a deep breath, centering myself and getting refocused. Everything done was by Sergio's orders and I would save most of the punishments for him.

I approached the man they had sitting on the beach and smiled when I recognized him, his name may escape me but I knew his crime. I stood in front of the Hispanic looking man and began to question him in both English and Spanish. He refused to answer any questions. Many more men showed up during the questioning, the four I had texted and ten more dayshift guys that were awakened by the gunfire. "Mario and Ramon go finish your lunches. Zip and Marc help me get the live one out to the speed boat. Zero and Ram contact Trenton, identify the dead bodies and load them in their boat. Take them thirty minutes east and dump them. Anyone that wants to help is welcome to; just don't tip over that poor little boat."

A few minutes later the dead men were identified as Filipe Batres, and Jacque LeSerable by photo confirmation from Trenton. Twenty minutes later I was hanging Santiago Menchu off the wooden swim platform in a meager attempt at some cooperation. Santiago had been the one to hit Stephanie in the face so I took exceptional pleasure in taking my time torturing answers out of him.

Finally, he gave us his name, which we already knew and explained that they flew down from New Jersey Thursday night. Boris knew early that day where we were going but they didn't have enough men to ambush us at the airport. It was decided that they would follow and look for an opening to take some women. Stephanie and Julie had been moved to number one targets to acquire.

Friday evening Boris told them the women were out of range for a week and that they were free to go do whatever they wanted till Thursday night when they were to report back in at eight pm. Sunday afternoon he called again. Said he had located the women and to get some sleep and meet up at ten pm we were going to take them at night. He had put them all up in the Peach Star motel but checked them all out before they left and dropped their luggage off at the airplane where Boris had the machine guns waiting.

Once they were armed he gave them the coordinates for the island. Told them to steal a boat and bring back as many women as they could. Harry had picked out the cruiser they were using and it was a good boat but the dingy was too small and slow, with an undersized motor. It moved too sluggish to stealthily make a move on the Island and could only bring two people back.

The plan was to shoot everyone they found but Stephanie and Julie. They were supposed to bring them back to the main boat, secure them, and call Boris for an update. Head back to Miami and then Harry was to sink the boats when they were through with them. Meet back up at the airport where Boris would have the plane waiting. I needed to know where Boris was but Santiago didn't seem to know. Only that he had flown down to Miami with them and was supposed to be waiting at the airport for them to get back.

It was obvious Boris was running the show but was unwilling to get his own hands dirty. The plan was to fly back to New Jersey where they would spend days torturing Stephanie and Julie. They would send me a DVD of their activities along with directions to find the girls. In the end I would find their dead bodies rigged with explosives to blow me up. He didn't know how Boris knew where we were, just that he had the coordinates of the island.

By the time I had all my answers, there was a good bit of blood in the water and between that and the unusually prolonged thrashing, several friends were circling ready to dispose of what was left of him. When we got back to the island I chose Zip, Zero, and Ram to pretend to be our would-be attackers. My men would return to the boat they had come to the island in to see if they could capture Harry and find out where Boris was.

While we were gone I had sent Bobby around to knock lightly on each cabana, to see if anyone had been awakened by the gunfire, let them know it was safe, and we would talk in the morning. He reported back that only my parents, Leyla, and Richard were awakened by the gunfire which was surprising, in this group of cabanas, they were the furthest away from the beach. I sent a quick text to Tank updating him on our situation. He asked if I needed a team from Miami. I texted back that we had things under control but I would contact them directly when or if we needed more men.

Seventeen minutes later I received a text: ' _We found the boat quickly but there was a shoot-out and the occupant is no longer alive."_ I sent them instructions to drive the boat back to Miami, dump the body along the way and call RangeMan to get picked up. This island was only about forty-eight miles off the coast of Florida so they would easily be back to RangeMan before morning.

I called Tank and we discussed the merits of hunkering down and staying here, debated how long it would take Boris to gather a new crew and attack, compared to the other options given by Skylar. I would have preferred Alaska, being the furthest away, but we had missed the cruise for this week, everyone would need a new wardrobe, there was a lot less to do there and my family would be freezing cold and hate me for picking it.

Ultimately, we determined it was safest for my family and the cruise line for us to move. I called Miami RangeMan and requested thirteen additional men to add to the security detail with the list of everything each man needed to bring and advised them to expect a call for a pick up from Ram, Zip, and Zero. It was now 04:17. I was having a minor adrenaline crash and went to go hold Stephanie, setting my watch for 06:00. When my alarm went off I showered and dressed quietly, calling Skylar as soon as I was out the door.

"Skylar, the men we were hiding from found us last night and I need to move everyone. We have forty-four people, three crates and luggage, we need as many prop planes as you can find to get us back off this island, the Concorde readied, reservations for the California houses, if they are available and check to see if there are still enough openings on the cruise going up the coast." I walked to the dining room as I talked.

"How did they find you?" she questioned.

"That is still being determined. Whatever their source is, it's a good one. We are being extra cautious from here on out. How soon can you get the planes?"

"Eight o'clock at the earliest. You'll need several so it's going to take a while. But the Concorde only needs fuel so it will be ready as soon as everyone is in Miami."

"Thank you, my most brilliant, gorgeous, magnificent woman. I know I am working you hard this morning, just know I appreciate everything you are doing. In Miami, we are adding thirteen more men to the protection detail making our total 60. Keep me updated by text and call if you have any questions. Goodbye." And I disconnected.

I addressed my dayshift crew while they ate. "Last night about 02:15 a boat motor was heard approaching the north shore. It landed approximately 02:35 on the east shore. Gun fire was exchanged. Two of theirs killed, one wounded. After a short discussion, it was determined that they flew from New Jersey Thursday, in the middle of the night, to Miami. Yesterday they stole a boat and drove it three miles north of this island. Their orders were to kidnap Julie and Stephanie and kill as many others as they could along the way."

"There were seven known assailants, six are now dead, leaving the leader, Boris. We don't know how he got them but Boris gave them the exact coordinates of this island. We don't know how long it will take him to find more men, but assume that he can hire local thugs and be after us as soon as today. We are leaving the island as soon as planes can be arranged."

"After breakfast, pack your bags. Half will be guarding, half will be getting people and luggage ready. Hank north end, Manuel south end, Cal east side, Hal West side. Zip, Zero, and Ram are gone returning the stolen boat. Junior, Eric, and Eddie, guard the cabanas and assist with luggage. Lester, Woody, Bobby prepare the families and transport guns and luggage. Marc you're with me. Night shift is going to pack and then sleep till the planes get here."

"We don't know how they found us so quickly. Any leaks that you see or think of text to me. We have to investigate all possible sources. Final note: Yesterday, Stephanie and I got engaged. This doubles her value as a target if they find out. Make sure she is protected at all times and at all costs. Dismissed."

I got a few congratulations from my men as they went back to eating. I sat with Marc to discuss possible ways we were located so quickly. They flew down here mere hours after us, maybe they called Concorde headquarters and found out the plane had flown to Miami, but none of them would have known about the cruise lines. If they found out we took the cruise, how would they find out we got off on the island to stay? This discussion only brought up more questions than answers.

"Marc, they were specifically targeting Stephanie and Julie. I want you to keep an eye on them today until we are settled where ever we are going. Probably California." He nodded to me understanding that these two women were the key to destroying me and he was responsible for keeping that from happening.

I talked to the kitchen crew, explaining that due to unusual circumstances we were leaving the island today, asking them to pack our lunches to go in cardboard boxes so my men could pick them up later. I walked over to the game room and found Janice.

"Janice, my men need to borrow the jeep."

"Sorry, but that is for employee use only."

"Then let me hire some employees. We had an incident last night and have to get everyone off the island in the next two hours. Normally the cruise ship would handle everyone's luggage. I need luggage for 47 people and three crates hauled out to the airfield." I pulled out a hundred-dollar bill. "I can pay you to do it or I can pay you for the use of the jeep and let my men do all the hard work." I handed her the hundred -dollar bill and she handed me the keys.

"If anyone asks, you found them hanging on a hook by the door." She explained.

"Of course, and that is where we will return them." I smiled at her.

I went back to the cabana and packed all my stuff. At seven o'clock I woke Stephanie and got her to breakfast. I wanted to give everyone a chance to eat before I addressed them, as what I had to say could ruin some appetites. My parents approached me with questions and I told them I would talk to everyone together after breakfast. At 07:35 I stood before the room, noticing that Oshanna looked a little worse for wear and Julio was nowhere to be seen.

I explained the attack on the island last night and that all the attackers were taken on the boat back to Miami. That we didn't know how they found us but reiterated the rules that no one was to tell anyone where we were and they were not to communicate with anyone outside the group, by text, phone, or email. I told them to pack as soon as breakfast was over and expect to be back on the mainland by lunch.

At 08:15 I was walking back to the cabanas with Stephanie when Skylar called me. "I can't find more than three planes right now, they can only hold a total of twenty-one people and luggage at a time. That would mean three round trips, and at least three hours to get everyone off the island. The soonest they can be fueled and over there is 9:30ish. I have another option that is sketchy but the pilots say for the right compensation they would be willing to do it."

"What is it?"

"Well the Concorde statistically says it needs a mile and a half runway. This runway is a mile and a quarter. When I talked to them they said they could do it but there would be an additional fee for the run."

"How much?"

"Fifteen thousand dollars and they could be there within the hour."

"Do it my glorious, illustrious, designer of deals." Ranger told her. "But let them know we still have to stop back in Miami on the way to California and pick up more men."

"Well they asked to talk to you about it directly. I am texting you their number."

"Skylar, one more thing. We need twelve black SUVs waiting for us in California. I think that is everything. You, my lady, are a brilliant rainbow after the devastating storm. Thank you for always being here for me and taking such good care of my family."

"Of course, Ranger, you know I would do anything for you."

"And Skylar, lovely, know I am always here for you and Danny too. Goodbye." I disconnected to find Stephanie staring at me.

"Glorious? Brilliant? Lovely?" Stephanie questioned.

"Babe, that was Skylar, my travel specialist. I have known her for many years. She is the widow of a fellow Ranger that saved my life on several occasions including the one that cost him his. Someday in the future we will have to go see her and her son Danny. She is the one making all the arrangements for this trip."

"But glorious? I've never heard you talk to anyone that way."

"Stephanie, he gave his life and saved mine. I promised him to always treat her like a princess. She works but I help pay for their son's Montessori preschool and I have her listed as a RangeMan employee so she can be on our insurance. She's very independent like you. There's not a lot she will let me do for her so I try to do all the little things she will let me."

I left Stephanie at our cabana to pack. My text message buzzed with the phone number for the Concorde pilot and I immediately called him.

"Captain Pelissier this is Carlos Manoso. You told Skylar there was a chance you could pick us up here on the island?"

"Oui, de plaan can mov 'ery fast and use less runvay, but it req'ires me to increase de acceleration more dan normal. If no one has any hart problems and can handle de q'ickly increasing velocity and pressure ve can com pick you up on de island."

"Do it. I will pay you whatever you require, but we will have to return to Miami to pick up extra men before heading to California."

"Cerdainly. De plane is fueling now. Ve can be dere in about an hour."

"We will be waiting on the runway."

I texted everyone that the plane would be here in an hour and to get packed and put their suitcases outside their cabanas for my men. I texted Lester to come get the keys to the jeep. I called RangeMan Miami and spoke to Tiny, who rivaled Tank in size. "Have Zip, Zero, and Ram contacted you for pick-up?"

"Yes sir, they called a little after 06:00. They are showered and dressed in clean clothes and ready to go."

"Have the men pack sleeping bags and six tents. I don't know how many rooms we have where we are going. I have a plane fueling to come pick us up on the island. The plane is a Concorde, let me call and see if they can board now to save us from coming back to Miami for them."

"Affirmative. I will text you the names of all the men coming from Miami." Tiny said and he disconnected.

My phone beeped with a text. _'Tony, Sport, Tiger, Billy, Red, Cade, Pace, Simon, Scott, Dillon, Francis, Gavin, Ian.'_

I called the captain back. "I have sixteen men from the Miami office that are joining us. Can they board now and save us from going back to Miami?"

"Oui. Dey weel hav to drive to hanger E-22. Ve weel vait for dem."

"I will have them there in thirty minutes." I disconnected and forwarded the information back to Tiny.

There was a knock on the cabana door and I answered it to find Lester standing there with his hand out. "Lester, I haven't seen or heard from Julio this morning. Send Bobby over to make sure he is up and packed and if he needs it, offer a ride to the plane." I gave him the keys to the jeep and went to go help Stephanie pack.

When we arrived, she unpacked all of her hanging clothes and shoes into the closet and was now struggling to repack it all again. I took over packing her clothes and she packed her few toiletries and blow dryer that was still out.

An hour and twelve minutes later Lester texted saying the plane had arrived. I gathered my family up and started them walking to the airfield. I ordered all my men back from patrol to go through every cabana and make sure we had everything. In Angelia's cabin, they found little Ricky's nappy blanket and several DVDs including Fern Gulley. All the others were clean.

I brought four men over to the kitchen to get our lunches and walked to the game room, giving Janice the keys to the jeep, the liquor cabinet and all of the cabanas.

"What am I supposed to tell the cruise lines?" she asked.

"Tell them my grandmothers got scared because they saw a shark and wanted to leave."

She smiled at me. "Well your family was nice to help while you were here. Good luck where ever you are headed." I thanked her and went to meet the plane.

I got on the plane first, greeted the Miami men and told them they were now on the Manoso family detail. I explained that they would receive an email detailing the full ramifications of the situation and their direct assignments in California. Then I asked them to sit further in the back of the plane so my family could sit up front. Once my family was loaded I laughed at Julio; he had been dragged onto the plane by Bobby and sat in the last row all the way in the back, holding his head with dark sunglasses on.

Thirty minutes later all the people and luggage were loaded and the captain was talking to everyone.

"Velcome to emergency flight 911, flying nonstop from de Bahamas to California. Dis take off is going to be faster than normal due to a short runvay. Ve are going to go from zero to two-hundred miles per hour in a little over a mile so there is going to be higher pressure dan normal. De pressure von't last more dan a few minutes, so take a few deep breaths, hold on and ve'll get going."

The seat belt sign turned on.  
The pilot went through all the regular pre-flight explanations. We were headed to California which would still be sunny and about 90 degrees. Emile and Sabine quickly walked down the aisle passing out sticks of gum to everyone that wanted some.

The flight attendants went through the emergency safety demonstrations. They went through the cabin and made sure everyone had their seatbelts on and electronics stowed. Stephanie once again stashed her phone into the pocket of the seat in front of her.

A few minutes later the pilot came back on. "Ve are ready for departure. Cabin crew pleaz take your seats." They quickly took their seats in the back of the plane and signaled the pilot that everyone was secure. A few minutes later you could hear the engines ramping up and up and up, pushing hard against the brakes of the plane and suddenly we were flying down the runway for several long seconds until we just jumped vertically into the sky.

Everyone was pushed back hard into their seats. We continued our vertical climb for several minutes, the ocean peeling away below us. The engines caught their second breath and they launched us forward again, not quite as steep as before as we blasted up into the sky.

It took almost ten minutes before we leveled off and started flying straight. The captain came back on, "Congratulations! Dat vas a fast take ovf but now vou can sit back and relax. Ve hav reached our cruizing altitude and I am turning off de seatbelt sign. Vou are free to get up and move about de cabin." I looked at my watch; it was now 09:53. We should be arriving in Los Angeles before 13:00.

During the flight I crafted a long email to the Miami men thoroughly explaining the situation from the contents of the DVD and rescue of Stephanie, to the assault on my parent's house. I described all the events that had transpired since leaving Trenton, including my engagement, explained what was expected during our next stop in California and attached the digital family album for them to get familiar with. I sent all the Trenton men a short email of what to expect next in LA.

After a two-hour fifty-three-minute uneventful flight, we were circling LAX as the plane prepared to land. Emile and Sabine turned off the kids' movies and again made sure all seats and tray tables were up. The landing was smooth and I asked Sabine to turn the movies back on while I explained to my family that we still had to get our rental vehicles. I let them know that some men would start unpacking the luggage while I took eleven men to get the SUVs. I asked Eline and Sabine to pass out the packed lunches and drinks while we were gone.

Over an hour later, after the rental company exhausted their entire fleet of remaining black SUVs, a line was formed outside of the hanger. We had eight black and four dark blue SUVs pulled up and parked next to the hanger, cars not being allowed out on this part of the tarmac. I had been patient with the long lines at the car rental agency but became irritated with Brad the inept attendant who insisted on getting Skylar on the phone to verify everything. Next he insisted on copies of every adult's drivers license. I got Bones on the line to send over copies of all the alternate driver licenses issued, even though I knew none of my family would be driving. Finally (overzealous in making the company more money) Brad wanted me to pay for all the extra drivers.

I had him call the manager and explained the security situation, this family was being protected and only RangeMan personnel would be driving. That unless every one of the thirty-three RangeMan employees was killed, the protected family would not be driving. He quickly cut through all the red tape and got us out the door but I made a mental note to tell Skylar to deal with a different company in the future. We finally got the keys and drove the SUVs back to the hanger.

Another thirty minutes passed for luggage and crates to be loaded, and the multiple back seats that had to be removed were loaded into the back of the plane. While they were loading the luggage, I prepared my family to unload from the plane, reminding everyone to use the bathrooms before deplaning, for it was over an hour drive to the houses.

During the drive I checked up on my emails and forwarded the email with all the Miami men's names and cell phone numbers to my family and Trenton men with a note to add them to the list of people they can contact.

My phone rang, I looked at the readout, it was Skylar.

"Hey Ranger, our requests for passage on the ship sailing up the coast has been declined. They don't have enough cabins for your men and they won't allow six men to a cabin. Even with the understanding that they work opposite shifts. The cruise out of Hawaii leaves Saturday and they are more accommodating. Koana Cruises will let us reserve a whole hallway that has 16 interior and 12 exterior rooms as long as we pay to upgrade the people who have already reserved the rooms. It's not on one of the top decks but the exterior rooms can hold up to five people per room and we can bring in extra roll-aways. They will let us set up any security measures we require, including double checking all passenger identities when they get back on the boat. The ship does that anyway, they will allow one of your men there during the process. Also, they will allow the men to carry stun guns onboard."

"Book it. We can stay here till Friday, fly everyone there in the afternoon. Find someplace safe for us till Saturday and Skylar you are beautiful. Thank you for all your hard work."

"Anything for you Ranger. I'm also putting together a list of activities in LA for you to approve. I'll call if anything else comes up."

"Pick out museums for families, closed places that are easier to guard. No theme parks or big open spaces."

"Okay, I'll make a list with links and send it to you."

"Thank you my most perfect specialist. You make my life infinitely easier. Good bye." Stephanie was sitting up straight staring at me during the phone call only to narrow her eyes at me when I disconnected.

I reviewed the email from Skylar that had the information on the three houses including floorplans. I reviewed all the houses and sent three long texts giving house and room assignments to my men. The first house had eight bedrooms. Every one of the four rooms on the second floor was a master with king sized beds and their own bath. On the third floor, the bedrooms were paired, sharing a walk-through bath. The next house over only had six bedrooms but each had their own bath. The third house had nine smaller bedrooms but all the bathrooms were in the hallways and were equally shared.

I began sending room assignments by text to my family, asking everyone to stay in their assigned room until all luggage was delivered. In the first house I put my parents, both abuelas, Marc, Tiger and Ramon, Steph and I on the second floor. Angelia and her kids in two rooms on the third floor with Francis, Gavin, Chester, Erik, Woody, and Gino. Putting two dayshift guys and one nightshift guy in each room. In the second house, I put Oshanna, Julio, Lester, Bobby, and Ryan on the second floor. Rachel, Ron, Julie, Freddie and Cassie, with Junior, Scott, and Mario would be on the third floor.

The third house was the trickiest, I put Leyla and her family in two rooms, Isabella and her family in two rooms and put the three pre-teens in a room together filling up the whole second floor. I was planning to give Rachel and Julie the option of her staying in the third house. I texted the rest of my dayshift crew requesting six men to sleep outside in tents and that the rest would share a room on the third floor of the third house. The Miami crew had packed the sleeping bags and tents and were expecting this so I heard back from them first. The tents were supposedly four men tents but with equipment it was an uncomfortable squeeze, it was why I had them bring six.

Twelve men answered back that they would sleep in tents and I made assignments. Third floor, third house: Hal, Cal, Simon; Vince, Ram, Billy; Dillon, Red, Cade; Eddie, Manuel, Chet. We would place tents on the side of the houses: first house – Tony, Ian; second house – Sport, Pace; third house – Zero, Zip. I smiled inwardly to myself knowing that Zero and Zip were big guys and preferred a sleeping bag to sharing a bed.

I texted all my men that there were three more tents and seven sleeping bags if someone on dayshift would prefer that to sharing a bed. I heard back from Eric, Manuel, Ram, and Red. I assigned Eric and Manuel to the first house and Ram and Red to the third house. I finished by sending one more text with the gate codes for the houses.

I did a little research on my phone before calling Tank while Stephanie sat beside me quietly playing games on her phone.

"I've been waiting for you to land." Tank started. "Guess where we found the King200 that flew from Trenton?"

"Miami"

"Coral Gables, just south-west of Miami."

"Does it have any listed flight plans? Can we get hold of the pilot?"

"No flight plans filed yet. I have been calling the pilot since he was identified and all I ever get is his voicemail."

"Keep trying to reach him. Tap his phone line. I want to know every call he makes or receives."

"Already done. There haven't been any outgoing or incoming calls since I was given his number on Saturday."

"That doesn't sound very healthy for him. Keep me updated. Any more news?"

"I'm sending the five guys from Miami back to Miami and pulling more men from Boston."

"Good, when I pulled the thirteen I forgot I had already pulled five. We're headed for Hawaii on Friday and it is an open carry state only with licenses for stun guns or firearms. You have to get permits separately from each of the five county's police departments. I need someone to put together a package with the DVD, the list of protected individuals and the cruise line itinerary."

"We are seeking temporary permits to carry open weapons," I explained, "either stun guns or fire arms, preferably both, only on the days we will be in port and for two extra weeks in Oahu for thirty-four men. Send all records for each man - service records, concealed carry permits, personal identification, work history. Put a copy of the video of the woman on top of the pile and emphasize that the woman in the video is already dead and the case is being handled by TPD. Include the police report from the shootings at Haywood and in Newark. I want four packages, addressed to the Police Chiefs for each Hawaiian county the cruise goes to, overnighted today to arrive by tomorrow, marked urgent and priority."

"Do you think they will even be opened and reviewed by Friday?"

"Doesn't matter. We are taking all the proper legal steps. The courts will give a slap on the wrist at best if anyone is arrested and charged. There is a minimum fourteen-day wait and that doesn't work for us. I want a letter of threat for each protected individual sent over for each man to carry, sent to my email today. "

"I'll put Bones and Williams on it."

"Tank we have to figure out where the leak is coming from. Somehow they got our exact coordinates and if they are following the plane they already know we are in LA. Nobody is safe until we can contain the leak."

"Have you checked yourself? You're still carrying the same phone. What if they are tracking you, knowing you are going everywhere with the women to protect them?"

"My number's unlisted but if they got it somehow, say from Stephanie's phone or some other source, they might be. I'll change it out now. Expect a new number for me within the hour." And I disconnected. _Cojeme,_ if they had my signal before we left they are just following me right to the nest. I shut my phone off and took out the battery. ( _Fuck_ _me_ )

The three-story mini-mansions, built thirty years ago, were all year-round rentals that could be combined to hold larger groups when rented for a week or more. This time they were available through Friday of this week. We pulled through the eight-foot high retractable gate surrounded by a ten-foot concrete wall into the long drive for the first house. There were high walls and metal gates around the front of each house separating them. Good for protection, but not very convenient. If there was a problem at the front of one house my men would have to go over the wall to assist.

Marc pulled all the way around to the front of the first grey house that had five stairs going up to the white front porch and red door. There were four tall columns going all the way up to the third-floor roofs, through the white railed porches that extended from the second and third stories. There was a three-car garage set-back on the right side of the house.

There were tall bushes in between the columns and small yellow and orange flowering plants in semi-circle bunches around the bushes. A property manager named Van waited for us inside the first house in the living room by the stairs and tried to insist on a walk through before signing the papers and releasing the keys for the other houses. I told him I had people waiting outside in the hot sun, after a several hour-long flight with small children, and got the keys to the other houses for Marc to deliver.

Van walked me around pointing everything out. This house was over 8000 square feet with a great room that had dark grey tile throughout the main area, a large twelve-person, light grey three-sided sectional, a large dark oak dining room table with twelve chairs, and an open kitchen with a lot of counter space a large long bar with two counter top stoves, five stools on the dining room side. There was an oversized fridge, industrial sized dishwasher and two stacked ovens built in to the walls.

He then walked me through all the side rooms; on the right side of the house was a library and den with open arched doorways, on the left side of the house was an office with a big desk, computer, color printer, copier, scanner and fax machine. After the office was a small conference room with a long table, eight chairs and a whiteboard mounted on the wall; following that was a bathroom. The back patio was almost as long as the house with an oversized grill on one end. Two long glass tables with umbrellas, six chairs each and four loungers. The ten-foot tall concrete walls ended a few feet from the back of the houses, with a large wooden gate. Encompassing the front and most of the side yards. There were no walls in the back of the houses so you could walk from one back porch to the next, I noted, as I followed Van's lead.

The second house was tropical with a bamboo and palm tree theme that ran through the downstairs. This house had a smaller kitchen with a breakfast table and six chairs. It had a formal dining room with a large white table and eight chairs. There was a larger family room with a large screen TV, tan sectional and brass pineapple lamps, a smaller formal living room with cream-colored leather couch and loveseat, bamboo coffee table and end tables with bamboo styled lamps. The rear wooden patio was a lighter and slightly peach shade of stain.

The third house seemed like it was designed for a frat party. With bright primary colors and odd shaped furniture. The kitchen table and ten chairs were yellow, the bar stools at the island were each a different color: red, green, yellow, and blue. In the sky-blue kitchen, the counters were light red and the cabinets deep tree green. The downstairs living room area had sunny yellow walls with arched doorways of fuchsia and blue. The furniture was low: a slouch red couch, curved shaped like a gaming chair and sitting directly on the floor, next to it was an aqua couch, also with no legs and a dozen pillows, there was a super low white coffee table and six different colored bean bags scattered around. Against the wall red, white and aqua storage cubes, six wide and three high, filled with movies, an Xbox, four controllers, and games, upon which a large screen TV sat.

"This walk through is to show you what all is included in all the houses and that there is no damage to anything." Van said as he led the way back to the first house. He had a thick contract on the table. He led me through signing and initialing every page including the lists of furniture, bedding, pots, pans, dishes, silverware, electronics and several thousand books, movies and games. Disclaimers of no liability for house or beach usage. He made it clear there was no damage and emphasized everything must be returned in its original condition. Van made it clear the ten-thousand-dollar deposit against damage and the price for the houses for one full week, even though we were using them for only five days, was non-negotiable and the deadline to be out of the house was Friday at 2:00 pm so cleaners could prepare the houses for the next week's occupants.

By the time Van was done, made me a copy of the thirty-page contract and left; the luggage was delivered and my family was preparing to go play on the beach. I lined my men up in front of the second house and broke down California orders.

"My family has not met any of you from Miami. For their ease and convenience, I want all men wearing your badges around your neck with lanyards, like the Trenton men have been doing. It will make them feel more comfortable as they get to know you, to see your name and badge. They will be inside on the kitchen counter. When everyone is at the houses, eight men per house. Three out front, two inside, three out back, hourly check ins. Men out front and back will carry LSATS and 100 rounds of ammo. Nine men on nights, three per house. One man out front, one man inside, one man on the back patio."

"Marc is always assigned to Stephanie, Junior you are always with Julie. They are primary targets and will have a man on them at all times, day and night. Ramon, you will serve as guard for Stephanie at night. Mario, you are with Julie during the night shift. Night men with assigned targets round the house once an hour with check-ins. Any time the targets are moving two men to a target. Any group of three or more gets an extra man."

"This is going to be different, but I had Ella make up new beach uniforms. Trenton guys be nice and share one uniform each with the Miami crew. This uniform is shorts and a tank top with the RangeMan logo on it. They can be worn here in California on the beach and when out with the family if you prefer. I have a few extra sets I will put outside my room for anyone who needs them."

"Gun laws in California – On these premises you are always armed with full gun belt; guns and stun guns. Outside patrols will carry LSAT machine guns with a hundred rounds. Offsite we can't carry guns anywhere, but carry stun guns and see if you can get away with carrying them where ever you go. If they are a problem, leave them in the car and carry a collapsible baton and if you can a knife. I am going to try to arrange approved activities like museums and tours for the week. You will carry ID and a gun belt with a radio at all times."

"You have to remember that you are protection, not on vacation. Your job is security and if there is any whisper of a threat get them back here. Safety trumps fun at all times. If they found us on that island they could find us anywhere, so keep your guard up. Watch for a leak. Somehow, they are finding us and we need to figure out how. If you have any ideas let me know immediately. I am off to get a new phone myself in case they are tracking my old number." I gave each man their assignment, which house they were assigned to, which woman they were assigned to, who their partners were and dismissed them.

I gathered all the women by text in the dining room to discuss meals, while fathers finished preparing rambunctious children to go out to the beach. I didn't want my family to plan to cook for my thirty-three men, but knew at least for lunch and breakfast my mother would prefer to cook rather than order out. A shopping list was created and I sent four men with my mama and Leyla to do the shopping for the family, and another four men to do grocery shopping for the men and gather menus from nearby restaurants.

Thirty minutes later everybody was out on the beach enjoying the California sun, sand, and waves. I watched the kids playing in the sun like we were on some grand adventure. There were real waves here crashing on the shore and several of the kids including Julie were body surfing. The smaller kids played in the sand, Oshana and Stephanie were laying out on the blue and white striped loungers on the patio getting some sun, Julio and Diego were setting up the volleyball net. Big men in black patrolled the sand and the front of the house with machine guns, Marc stood just off the porch, LSAT in hand.

We were one step ahead of the bad guys, but I worried about how soon until they regrouped and managed to find us again. I went over to Stephanie. "Babe, I have to go into town. I'll be back in time for dinner."

She nodded to me. "Okay." I leaned over her and gave her a kiss. I left, borrowing Lester's phone and used the GPS to find the nearest cell phone store. An hour later I was on my way back with new sim cards and new phone numbers for myself and Lester. I texted Tank and every RangeMan along to use the new numbers only. I texted everyone in my family to add the new numbers to their contact list and delete the old ones.

Mama, Leyla, Isabella, and both abuelas were in the kitchen of the third house making tacos for dinner and I snitched a taste of guacamole that was in a big bowl as I made my way through.

Leyla called out to me. "We didn't have to use our passports when we got to California." She stated. "Is that legal? Are we ok now?"

"The pilots filed a flight plan from Miami to California. Their little detour to pick us up on the island was not recorded anywhere so as far as anyone knows we never left Miami. It is all legal and we are as safe as we can be for now."

I found Lester out back where most of the family was playing volleyball. I got his phone, installed the new sim card, gave him the new number and told him of my suspicions of being tracked through our phones. He asked me why I didn't replace all the men's phones.

I explained that no one knows which men were assigned to this mission except Tank, all the numbers are unlisted, but my cell phone is used for the company and is more widely known. I reminded him that he hands his number out to every pretty girl he meets so it would be easier to get hold of our numbers. I told him, honestly, that I didn't know how they found us but they followed us immediately to Florida and only took two days to find us on the island so they must be tracking us somehow.

I slipped into the office and set up my laptop. The printer was on the house's wireless network. I logged on using the Manoso network and downloaded the forms declaring the women in mortal danger. They outlined the threat to each woman, what had already happened, and detailed who made the threat and the ongoing danger. I searched the office and found a USB cord to connect my computer to the printer directly and printed six copies for each woman. I put them all in a folder, planning to pass them out to my men in the morning.

While the women were fixing dinner, I took Stephanie up to our room for some peace and quiet. Marc stood at parade rest just outside our door. I handed her the Sat phone. "Babe you know you're just going to worry about it till you tell your mom."

She sighed, rolled her eyes, and dialed the phone. "Hi Mom," she rolled her eyes.

"I'm doing okay."

"No, we're safe. We keep moving around so no one can find us."

"No, I was calling to tell you something else." She hesitated.

"Mom, I don't want you to be upset. I want you to be happy for me 'cause I really want this." She took a deep breath and looked at me.

"I got engaged yesterday." She blurted out.

"Yes, I really did get engaged." She repeated.

"No Mom, not to Joe. You heard correctly. Joe and I broke up." She explained. Now I could hear the raised voice coming through the phone.

"To Ranger, I got engaged to Ranger."

"Yes Mom, I know you think he's the reason I got kidnapped."

"It's not his fault when bad people target him because of his service to this country."

"But, he's a great guy. He loves me more than Joe ever did, and he owns his own multi-state company and has a lot more money than Joe." She said.

"I think it does matter that he loves me more than Joe." She huffed.

"It's complicated." Her voice got quieter.

"No, I love him more than I loved Joe. Besides it's over between me and Joe so if you want to see me get married in the next decade it's going to be to Carlos." There was a brief pause.

"That's his real name, Carlos. And Joe had been sleeping around, not just when we were broken up but also sometimes when we have been together and I just can't handle that. It's like Dickie all over again." She said.

"I didn't know, nobody told me. I have been being faithful to him even when we were broken up and he's been running all over town." There was a short pause.

"No, I haven't been sleeping with Carlos." She exclaimed.

"Well, I have slept with him a few times in all the time I've known him, but I haven't been running to him every time Joe and I break up." She clarified.

"No Mom only a few times total." There was another pause.

"Well yes, we may have done something when we were in Hawaii."

"Joe chose not to come to Hawaii in the first place and Ranger came because of a skip. We were mostly working." She was getting angry.

"You're gonna have to let Joe go. I have and we are never getting back together again."

"Mom can't you just be happy for me? You've wanted me to settle down and get married for a long time and now that's exactly what I'm doing."

"Well his family doesn't think I am making a mistake. They are happy for me and they have already started planning the wedding. I'll just let them plan it and we'll get married in Newark and you don't have to be involved."

"Yes, they even started a Pinterest page for it. One of my sisters-in-law even pinned the ring he gave me. Or at least one like it, mine has a three-carat diamond so it is a lot bigger than the one she found."

"The colors are blue and black, and we're going to have hearts, feathers and balloons."

"Yes, Mom, we really are engaged, and we really are going to get married. I love him. I have for a long time."

She told her mom the information to get on to Pinterest so she could see what my mom and sisters had been doing. "This way you and grandma can add to the page and make comments."

"We haven't picked out any dates. You're going to have to call around and see what dates are available. We're open." _'Not during the winter'_ I mouthed to her.

"Carlos says not during the winter. We want to have it when the weather's nice. Maybe this fall."

"Well honestly we haven't discussed it," and she looked directly at me. "But we are both Catholic so I expect a church wedding and where ever you can find that's big enough for the reception. He has a very large family so the biggest place you can find."

"Just be happy for us. This is a good thing and I will be safer with him than I ever was with Joe."

"Yes, well that's one way he'll keep me safer."

"Look Joe insulted me and told me I make his bed unsafe. That it's all my fault he got attacked."

"These were not MY bad guys! They were not after me because of anything I've done. They are just trying to hurt Carlos for the good work he has done for the government. Not because of anything bad he has done. It's just something he has to live with, that he did good things and now bad people are coming after him for it."

"Mom, it's going to be Ok. He has a security company. He can keep me safe and his apartment is really safe. It'll never get fire bombed. It is monitored 24/7 and no one can break in."

"I will bring him to dinner when we get back and occasionally after that. But I will tell you right now he's never going to come to dinner once a week. You're going to be lucky if it's once a month." This peaked my attention. At least she realized right off the bat that I wouldn't be conforming to Burg norms, this was something I wasn't looking forward to addressing with her because it's the kind of thing that could start unwanted disagreements.

"Because he runs an interstate security company with four branches and over 200 employees. He's really busy."

"Mom, honestly he only sees his own family a few times each year, so I can only promise you to bring him to visit as often as we go see his family." I can live with that. I leaned close to her and whispered four times a year.

"Let's say four times each year and Christmas and major holidays when we don't go see his family." She repeated.

"I don't know what holidays he sees his family."

"Yes, we'll try for Thanksgiving." I leaned over to her again.

"Babe I work all the major holidays so I can give as many of my men time off as possible."

She covered the hand set, "Even Thanksgiving and Christmas?"

"Especially Thanksgiving and Christmas. I work double shifts on those days. Easter and Christmas Eve gets spent with my family. But I promise to come eat with your family four times each year and around Christmas and Thanksgiving. Like the Sunday before or after, your mother's choice."

She took her hand off the phone. "Carlos just told me he works double shifts on Christmas and Thanksgiving so he can give his men the day off but he will come to dinner the Sunday before or after. Your choice."

"Well Mom he already has a daughter. We're going to have her up to visit, cause she lives in Miami and I promise to bring her over when she's in Jersey."

"Well, um, honestly we haven't talked about more kids, but I don't think either of our lives are ready for kids any time soon."

"For now, can't you just be happy that I'm engaged to get married? Let's take this one step at a time." She rolled her eyes again and I knew she was getting frustrated.

"I love you. Tell Dad and Grandma I love them too. Don't worry because we are all just fine. We are having fun. This is like one big family vacation."

"I'll talk to you in a couple of days."

"Bye."

She handed me the phone back and smiled. "Well she's absorbing the news. She wants to be happy because she said she has been waiting for this day a long time, but she's worried that I got engaged to you rather than Joe. Due to the danger and the running for my life she's not sure if she approves."

I took the phone. I could see both sides of the argument. My family is happy, they never thought I would settle down. But I wouldn't want Julie anywhere near a man like me and to be in danger her whole life.

I took her into my arms and kissed her. Her mother was probably having a drink right now. Then she would be calling the VFW hall and reserving it. To be followed by doing some laundry and ironing the sheets, towels, Frank's boxers, undershirts and socks.

To be continued…

A/N: Thank you all for your reviews. They are all appreciated. They let me know you like the story and keep me motivated to keep writing. At this point we are about half way through the story. I am expecting it to go about 30 chapters.

The family has made it safely to LA. Love flying on the Concorde. Wish they would make more commercial planes that go that fast! What should happen to the family now? Can Ranger relax enough to let his family have some fun? Please read and review.

As always big THANK YOU to my beta Sassysaint who gave me the encouragement and support to start posting my story. THANK YOU! Wouldn't have, couldn't have done it without you!

Second Big THANK YOU to my sister, Jonelle. Who is giving my stories a thorough technical analysis (ie deep proof reading) Thank you for fixing all my commas, apostrophes, and all my many other little mistakes.

Ranger's Family Album

Mother's Mother – Abuela Rosa, Father's Mother – Abuela Sanja Manoso

Mother – Maria Father – Javier

Siblings and family in age order

Leyla (35) & Richard Gonzales– Rebecca (Becky) 12, Margaret (Maggie) 10, Richard (Ricky) 7, Michael (Mikie) 5

Angelia (34) & Jordan White – Shanna 5 – Kendrick (Ricky) 3

Ricardo Carlos Manoso (32)– Ranger

Julio Manoso (30) Ex Allysa – Jacob 2

Isabella (27) & Diego Diaz – Chris 8, Shylia 6, Parker 3

Oshanna Manoso (22)

Rachel & Ron – Julie 12, Fredrico (Freddie) 9, Cassandra (Cassie)6

Trenton & Miami Merry Men Assignments (33 Men)

Abuela Sanja – Vince, Ian

Abuela Rosa – Manuel, Gavin

Maria – Erik, Francis

Leyla – Hal, Tony

Angelia – Woody, Dillion

Isabella – Cal, Red

Oshanna – Lester, Sport

Rachel – Eddie, Pace

Julie – Junior, Scott

Stephanie – Ranger, Marc, Tiger

Extra's – Bobby, Ram, Zero, Zip

Night's – Chet, Chester, Gino, Mario, Ryan, Ramon, Billy, Cade, Simon


	17. Chapter 17 Reflections in California

Chapter 17 – Reflections in California

Monday May 18 18:00 ish

 _I took the phone. I could see both sides of the argument. My family is happy, they never thought I would settle down. But I wouldn't want Julie anywhere near a man like me and to be in danger her whole life._

 _I took her into my arms and kissed her. Her mother was probably having a drink right now. Then she would be calling the VFW hall and reserving it. To be followed by doing some laundry and ironing the sheets, towels, Frank's boxers, undershirts and socks._

Dinner was a boisterous 28-person affair with everyone talking about what happened last night and the excitement of being in California. Lester joined the family rather than have sandwiches with the men and the women in my family loved it because he was so much more charming, open and talkative than I am. I sat out on the deck with Stephanie and half my family. Really pleased at how well they were accepting Rachel, Ron and their kids, and how well Julie, Becky and Maggie were continuing to get along. With all that has happened today no one has bothered Stephanie once about the wedding. Marc stood off the deck, out of our sight, LSAT in hand.

As dinner was winding down I opened the sliding glass door and got everyone's attention inside and out. "It's time to go over California rules. First of all, we are a lot more exposed here so everyone is getting two bodyguards." I gave them the names of their men. "I will introduce them to you in the morning. When we are around the houses, the men will guard the perimeters, when you go out you have two men on you. Groups of three or four women get an extra man. Stephanie and Julie, you were both specifically named in this last attack. You get one man on you twenty-four seven and two men when you leave the houses. The men will drive everywhere you go. All trips anywhere away from the houses must be approved by me. Keep your phones on you at all times. Gunfire rules are the same, get down and stay down until notified it is safe. But I will add to check your phones, we will text once it is safe so you don't have to wait for someone to find you and tell you personally. In the case of gunfire I need everyone with a phone to respond that you are okay."

"Everything you do here has to be approved. I need to know where everyone is at all times so text me regularly where you are and what you are doing. Marc is second in command, if I'm not around you can always ask him for permission to leave. You can also always ask your men to contact me, they have radios and phones and can always get in touch with me."

"I know it will get boring for the kids being cooped up in these houses all day every day. Everyone pull out your phones. I have sent you a list of approved activities." I waited while everyone pulled out their phones and pulled up the lists. "There is always the beach. Three LA sightseeing tours around the city in a closed bus. In fact, they have a special bus they use for larger tours that will hold up to twenty people and we can rent the whole thing. There are fifteen approved museums: Natural History Museum, California Science Center, The Getty & Getty Villa, Kids Space Museum, Zimmer Kids Museum, Discovery Cube LA, Children's Museum La Habra, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California Science Center, Peterson Automotive Museum, Guinness World Records, Ripley's Museum, Madame Tussauds Hollywood, Hollywood Wax Museum, and the Griffith Observatory. There are links to each museum so you can see what they are. As we are here longer and the threat level goes down more activities could be approved. We can stay in these houses until Friday at 2. That's three and a half days. Discuss it over, pick out what you want to do and then we'll make a plan for the week, so everyone can go to the same museums the same days and we can coordinate our security details. I have sent everyone this information in an email so you can look these things up on your laptops as well."

With that announcement, half the room got up and went and got their computers, fifteen minutes later they were sectioned off in groups in the living room, library, den and around the dining room table talking and going over the options. As they came back I passed out paper and pens to everyone telling them to list their top five or six options for the week.

Stephanie was sitting next to Oshanna so I got my laptop and logged it in for her. She just smiled as I handed it to her with paper and pen, "Carlos, what do you want to do?"

"Babe I'm going to do my job and make sure everybody stays safe."

"There isn't anywhere you want to go?"

"I may come on some outings depending on what they are but I'm here to protect everyone; you and Julie specifically. That's what I need: to see that everyone is safe. I'll be back, make a list of what you want to do this week and we can decide the best days to do it. I'm going to check in with the men." I told her as I got up and made my way to the back of the house. By radio I checked in with all my teams and looked at the beach.

While I loved my family, I was much more comfortable with my emotionally stunted men than with my very demonstrative family. It was nice that they were so loving and close but I haven't spent any real time with them since I was twenty and left to go join the army, and I barely did then. To be honest I hadn't felt like part of the family since I was fourteen.

I walked out the sliding glass doors, checking on the beach patrols and sent a text to Marc that I was going for a run and to watch Stephanie closely. I had run a few miles on the beach chasing the boat around the island this morning but nothing compared to my normal five to eight miles. Something was burning up, bothering me in the back of my mind and the best way to uncover it was to let my mind flow free for a while as I exhausted my body. I let my mind wander and the next thing I knew I was remembering my youth.

When I was fourteen, after I got out of juvie, my parents sent me to go live with Abuela Sanja in Miami. My mama tried to keep in touch by calling me every week to see how I was doing but she did all the talking because I honestly didn't have anything to say. Then I started high school and tried to carve out a place for myself in the deeply Cuban neighborhoods. It took me a long time. Physically I was just starting to get taller and fill out, still small for my age. But I was the outsider and was not very accepted into the cliques that were already formed by those that grew up in these neighborhoods.

I was angry for being sent away at 14. Angry at losing my family and all my friends. Angry at the gangs I had joined to get out of being beat on regularly and because all my friends were joining too. In those neighborhoods you either joined or were outcast and forever bullied. I just hadn't realized what joining and belonging would put pressure on me to do. Angry at my overly strict Abuela who closely monitored everything I did. Checking that I went to school, checking that I was at work, checking that I did my homework. I wasn't allowed to go anywhere not approved or hang out with other kids my age. Which didn't matter because I had no friends and was rejected by the neighborhood.

Jiu Jitsu helped me channel all my anger into productive emotions. I learned to control my raging hormones and out-of-control emotions by channeling them into productive actions. I learned to hide all my emotions and the neighborhood kids that harassed me began leaving me alone as I became balanced and they realized nothing they did bothered me anymore. I gained their respect and started making friends as I was strong in myself. As I grew bigger and began filling out I also fit in easier with them.

The next year I was fifteen but visits back home were awkward because when I came home for summer breaks and holidays I was forced to share a room with Julio because Oshanna had been given my room. Julio was living in hog heaven as he had been given the biggest bedroom, and a bunkbed that he covered in his stuff, a large nine drawer dresser and walk in closet. Now a few weeks out of the year, over Christmas and spring break, he grudgingly shared it with me, not giving up any closet or drawer space but making me live out of my suitcases and constantly putting stuff on the top bunk "forgetting" I was in town. During the summer he cleaned out three of his nine drawers for me but I was gone six days a week working for my dad as a laborer cleaning up job sites. I had to rely on Jorge, a site supervisor, to pick me up from the office and take me around to work where he needed me the most.

By the end of my sophomore year everything was different because I was sixteen and had my own car, a hot 1989 Pontiac Trans Am. I bought it from a junk yard with all the money I had saved from working construction the summer before. It had been in a bad car wreck but the motor still mostly worked, and I had it towed to my grandmother's house. I restored it over six months while taking Auto Mechanics that year, spending a fortune buying body parts to replace what was damaged, and then painted it hot rod red with two black stripes down it's top. With it I got attention from girls and respect from guys that drooled over my car. By then I had filled out and was 5' 10" with long hair again. I was building muscle and really starting to fill out in my chest, arms, and shoulders. After one and a half years of Jiu Jitsu I won any confrontation that came my way and I was finally being accepted and included by the neighborhood. I had money and had started dating. Before the end of the school year Jennifer and I had been going steady for three months.

Leyla got married my sophomore year, and that summer I got her room, ignoring the pink paint on the walls as I worked for my father's company framing out houses, hanging drywall and putting on roofs 'to keep me out of trouble', but really, I was happy to be mostly left alone. While all my friends in Miami were out partying, and going to the beach on their off days, I was trapped working six days a week and staying home. Holed up in my room counting the days till I could get back to Miami and see Jennifer.

I could have gone out more that summer but I felt obligated not to sleep around because Jennifer and I hadn't broken up before I left. I tried calling several times but really it was awkward calling from our kitchen phone to her family's house phone where ears were always listening. The last month of summer, I stopped calling. I had been spending every day working for my dad and practicing my Jiu Jitsu. I was shocked to come back to Miami for my junior year and learn she had moved suddenly and didn't even call to tell me.

The rest of my high school career went along well. As long as I kept my grades up Abuela Sanja left me to work, my daily martial arts classes, and on weekends let me hang out with my friends. Life was good until I graduated and my parents insisted I come home. I had been angry when they sent me away at 14 but eventually I had made a life for myself in Miami, and wasn't ready to leave it.

At eighteen, I was angry again, so angry at being once again ripped from the life I had built for myself. In Miami, I had many girlfriends and friends I hung out with. My part-time job was going to become full-time. I was only a few months away from getting my black belt in Judo, to add to my black belts in Jiu Jitsu and Aikido. Now they had ripped it all away again forcing me to move back home, work for my dad and go to college.

When I was forced to come home as an 18-year-old High School graduate, the summer before college started, I felt like I didn't know my family anymore. I had to work for my father again that summer and after three summers as a laborer he thought it was time I learned about the business. Starting me every Monday in the office doing filing and paperwork for him, then driving around on different jobs where he would inevitably leave me to work for the rest of the week.

He kept assigning me to work on different projects: one week wiring up a house, the next week putting in a toilet, sink, and laying tile. It became clear he was grooming me to become management and take over the business someday but while construction was something I was good at, it didn't interest me as a life long career.

The one thing I did for myself was sign up for Muay Thai classes twice a week, the closest martial arts school to our house. I spent my spare time taking classes and hanging out at the local bowling alley, trying to pick up girls. Six months later when my dad saw me practicing Muay Thai in the backyard it came out that was where I was two days a week. He forbade it and went down to the school and tried to unenroll me. He thought if I was training that meant I was fighting and getting back in with the gangs. I was eighteen, so they wouldn't let him unenroll me, but he put his foot down and said I couldn't do martial arts as long as I lived under his roof. I quit the classes as ordered and practiced secretly in my room. My focus then became to get my business degree and move on with my life as quickly as possible.

I worked and went to school, but I secretly resented it and my parents. My father was always so encouraging of me learning the business, like I was five and learning the alphabet. It wasn't a matter of if I could do it but that I didn't want to. I went through the motions, taking extra classes every semester so I could finish school early. I went to classes every morning and worked for my father in the afternoons.

It sucked because I was back home and I still had to work for my father so I could pay for school, gas and any other expenses. To top it all off my parents had started charging me weekly rent saying they were preparing me for real life. All while Julio got a car, gas money, all his time, everything for free. Oh, he had to work for my dad during the summers as required, but he was more charismatic than me, making friends with the men on each site. Then he would spend his time hanging out, joking around with them rather than doing any real work. I watched him on one site spend all afternoon "working" with one guy handing him tools and wood not doing any of the work he was there to do. Three days later he was still on that job site doing his "work".

In April, after two years of working for the construction company, I'd had it and went to get a different job at a local gym that also had boxing and MMA. Again my father forbade it and when I went to classes the next day the Army recruiter was on campus so I signed up. Basic started four weeks later and I didn't even tell my parents, I just prepared everything. I finished my classes, taking my exams one week early. I left work after lunch that Friday, loaded my already packed clothes in my car, left them a note on my dresser and reported to Fort Benning, Monday morning.

I didn't talk to my mom again for four months, the longest I had ever gone without talking to her and that was a call my commanding officer insisted I make because I was being deployed to a war zone in Afghanistan. That's where I saw my first group of Army Rangers come back from a mission. They were so confident and commanded so much respect. They were rough, rugged, and independent. People got out of their way and they had 'real' missions, not just marching or driving around patrolling a boundary all day.

I signed up for the next Rangers school and was turned down because I was not fit enough. I spent the next six months learning all I could about the Rangers and Ranger school, working out and putting on weight. During that time, I applied for a transfer so I could be airborne trained and then got accepted into IBOLC: the U.S. Army's Infantry Basic Officer Leadership Course.

My second week I was in IBOLC I applied to Ranger school again and was accepted, and then I met Sgt. Major Green. A big black former Ranger that now taught at Leadership, he gave me the best advice ever… Train big, Eat big! He told me how to increase my workouts so I'd be ready and how much to eat and what to eat to pack on muscle and good fat.

For the next three months I followed his advice: running five miles a day, working up to ten, with weight on my back that I increased five pounds each week, until I could run long distances with thirty pounds on my back. I did various training in the water once a week. I increased my workouts till I could do one hundred push-ups and sit ups every day focusing on using perfect form. Weight training daily alternating body parts, but maxing out the weight I could lift every time. Eating 3000 to 3500 calories a day, including two muscle building protein shakes. It was a lot of work to fit in with my already full leadership schedule so I started cutting my sleep short and getting up at 05:00 to fit it all in. Working on less sleep was another thing that served me well in Ranger school where you averaged 3 to 4 hours of sleep a night.

I packed on a good fifteen pounds of muscle and ten pounds of fat by the time I started Ranger school. This was good because 65 days later when I'd graduated Ranger training at the top of my class, I was thirty pounds lighter, my clothes practically hanging off my frame. I looked like a scarecrow that had its stuffing pulled out. I was the size I was at 18, except now it was hard steely cut muscle and I had more strength and endurance than I'd ever had in my life.

After I got my Ranger tab I worked hard to put the muscle back on, not just fat. It's well known in those circles that after two months of rapid loss like that, the body goes into survival mode and tries to pack fat back on, but builds muscle grudgingly. I started my Train Big, Eat Big regiment again, but I was very careful with my fats, only eating good lean meats. I watched some of the others of my unit put on little bellies in the months that followed, but I was careful and became more sculpted and stronger, packing on another 25 pounds of muscle in the next six months.

My years in the Rangers were the best and worst of my life. Some of the things we were called to do, some of the things that we saw others doing were, well horrific doesn't cover it. Unspeakable is close, things you could never imagine one human doing to another. Some of the things we did were so amazingly great it made me feel like if I died today, my life would have been worth it; that I had made a difference in the world and in real people's lives. Killing bad guys made me feel justified, like I was righting a wrong. Overtime, I found myself becoming numb, not reacting to the good or the bad, my heart and mind slowly becoming hardened and unmoved.

I didn't have a death wish. I would fight to the death and kill to protect mine, but I got lost in the job. You become that way living day to day knowing each mission might be your last and watching good men around you fall. At some point, you stop thinking about what you are going to do when you get old because you're not sure if you'll be alive next week.

Over the years I was seen as one of the best and commanding officers would request me. I was good with languages. With my skin color I could blend anywhere. But I had a knack of getting my team's mission accomplished and everyone out alive. I had a sixth sense that could find any bad guy we were sent to hunt down, take down any terrorist cell, intercept weapons shipments, catch any drug lord or drug runners, and miraculously make it back alive. I just always knew when we were headed in a bad direction and when my commanding officer listened to me could figure out a way that we could make it. Once I was the commanding officer I already had a reputation and respect. Men assigned under me would listen, because they had heard the rumors, and would follow me into any hellhole because they knew I would get them out alive.

When they told me about SOCOM, the leak and threat to my life, it felt like just another day on the job. Nothing I hadn't already been facing for the last many years. Not until months after I left the service, when I came home practically unarmed to a tiny rundown apartment off Stark, found an assassin waiting for me in my bathroom and was shot and stabbed before I took him down, did I take the threat seriously.

I had been planning RangeMan for a while and was already talking to two businessmen who were ready to help fund it. I hired men, starting with Tank, an ex-Navy Seal I had worked with on a few occasions in the service. We got cut off from our group on this one fucked-up mission and fought back to back to get out alive. I told him about starting my own security company when I got out and he said that sounded better than anything he had planned to do and would help me.

I started monitoring what contracts were out on me and what mercenaries were in the country that could be coming after me. I became proactive, going after anyone who threatened me as well as the assassins they hired to take me out. I started carving my messages on the handle of a knife and left them buried in their bodies. It only took three until word got around and people realized if they came after me they were signing their own death warrant. After that most threats on my life were removed except for a few who are either in jail or extremely well protected. Once I killed Claude 'the Claw', a notoriously ruthless hitman, even the best assassins were detoured from shortening their lives to come after me. One even sent me flowers, admitting that he had already taken the money but respected me too much to come after me now. He said that I had thirty years and when I was old and grey he would make sure I died an honorable death and didn't have to worry about things like Alzheimer's or cancer. Great guy.

I lived like that for years, day to day, becoming a mercenary and doing dirty jobs for money. Going undercover for the government paid well but many of my black op missions were worse than my Ranger missions. Doing things so bad the government didn't want to admit to themselves they were doing it. At times these ops required me to do illegal and sometimes immoral things knowing if shit hit the fan, I and my team, if I had one, would be disavowed and left to be tortured, killed, or if you were lucky jailed in a violent, hostile government's hands.

But I was so numb I sought the thrill of the challenge, the hard pressure and excitement of living on the knife's edge knowing you could be caught and killed at any time. I didn't want to die from boredom, and while I was making RangeMan a success, I felt like I could become buried by the paperwork and the mundane. I was struggling to stay metaphorically awake and alert in boring civilian life, grateful I had signed on to do contract work for the government.

I thought everything was going along fine. Rangeman was growing by leaps and bounds. I had more money than I had expected coming in. Government contract work was coming in on a semi-regular basis. I just didn't realize that while everything was working on the outside, I was still dead on the inside. That is until one quirky, crazy haired, determined woman came into my life. She made me smile from the first day I met her. Thinking she didn't stand a chance at apprehending the cop but that it would be fun to watch her, I remember saying to Tank that I gave her three days before she gave up and went back to her ordered prim and proper 'burg world'. But she found an iron will in herself and she focused on the prize.

The night she called me to come unlock her from the shower curtain I wanted to take her right there against the bathroom wall. _Dios_ I've never wanted a woman so much. It made me smile and laugh out loud as I left, certain that now she would quit the case. But it only made her more determined and when she finally got her man I couldn't have been prouder. I was still recovering from a gunshot to the leg from trying to help her, but I had wanted nothing more than to take her out for some drinks and seduce her.

Time passed and she called me again and again for help and I made myself available because she was always good for a smile. I looked forward to hearing from her knowing it would brighten my day. When I gave her my 911 turbo I was actually planning it as a prelude to seduction. I watched her wrap her hand around that stick and I could see her wrapping that same soft hand around me. When she turned it into a flaming pancake I couldn't get there fast enough to make sure she was really okay and to see the damage for myself. When I pulled her body next to mine and kissed her later that day I wanted nothing more than to carry her upstairs and take her.

I was starting to want her bad, but I didn't want to lose the working relationship we had. I realized that I couldn't just fuck her and walk away, my usual MO. But I was really starting to need her, fantasize about what she would be like, and the deal seemed like the perfect solution at the time. One night only, she knew there was no offer of a relationship involved. I could take what I wanted and get her out of my system.

Talk about a plan backfiring. After all night of having her I only wanted her more, she had done what no woman since months of missing Jennifer had done: made me desperate to come back for more. But I needed her safe and alive more than I needed her in my bed and I made the decision to send her away. I danced around the edges of her life unwilling to let her go. She was a drug for me, she made me better, when she looked up at me with those big blue innocent eyes I could see the good man she saw in me, and I found myself wanting to be that man.

After Hawaii it got worse. I wanted to lock myself away with her until neither of us could walk. I saw that ring when planning a security system at a local jeweler's and imagined taking her to dinner at Rossini's and after a good meal having them put the ring on top of her tiramisu. I wanted to ask her to marry me and tell her that she could now have her cake and eat it too. But the fear that she would someday turn up dead was my recurring nightmare and I couldn't risk putting her in that kind of danger for my own selfish needs.

Now everything has changed and I needed to keep her safe. For the rest of her life it was my job to keep her safe. My new life's purpose, my new life's plan. All focused around this one crazy, sweet, wild, impulsive, innocent woman that wormed her way into my heart. I pulled myself out of the past and stopped running to call Tank.

"Boss."

"I need to know where Sergio is or where he will be this weekend."

There was silence on the other end of the phone and I heard typing. "I'll get several men on it."

"No, just you and Hector. The fewer men that know about this the better."

"We'll get on it. Can I bring Bones in though? You know he's good at tracking people electronically, getting into their heads and figuring out what they'll do next."

"Do it."

"The packages were dropped off at Fed Ex by six, but Hawaii is a separate flight and they said the fastest it can get there is two-day delivery. It will be delivered Wednesday by 10 am."

"Any word on Boris?"

"No, and no movement on the King200."

"That doesn't mean he hasn't hired another plane or taken a commercial flight."

"Do you want me to get men to go through airport security footage?"

"No, too much footage without knowing exactly what to look for. What we need is to figure out where he is getting his information. We need to know how he is tracking us."

"Have you checked all the kids' phones and computers? Using your setup, they can't track your location through IP addresses but if they got hold of one when your family was still home and had the technology they could hack their email. All it would take is one email to a school buddy explaining why the kid isn't in school and what you all are doing instead and Boris would have your location. Start with the houses trackers were found in. We know they were in three houses, they might have gotten into someone's email then. If they were really advanced they could have planted a virtual tracker on something that will tell them where the computer is every time they get on-line."

"I should have thought of that. I'll get men going through their computers tonight. Who are the best computer guys I have here?"

"I know Lester's good, Woody's good, Eddie specialized in computers and cryptography in the Army. From Miami, you have Ian and Billy. Ian has a four-year degree in computer programming, but if you need him to, Hector can remote in and sweep them."

"Have Hector on stand-by. I want this done tonight."

"and I'll have Bones standing by, two can get it done faster."

"Tank, a side thought. Put in to claim Mucktar's body. Tell them that RangeMan will take care of the burial. Have one of the guys find out what family he still has alive and pay to have his body sent back for burial. I want to do more for them when I get back but for now that is the least I can do."

"Done and done."

I ran back to the house contemplating this new information. Trackers had been found in luggage belonging to Stephanie, Angelia, one of Leyla's kids. Trackers were found in shoes belonging to Stephanie, Angelia, her daughter Shanna and all four of Leyla's kids. It seems they only had time to stop at three houses. Stephanie left her laptop at home. Angelia's kids had "baby" tablets that couldn't get on-line; they were a closed system, only able to use the programs they were created with.

Angelia and Leyla have their laptops and some of Leyla's kids have tablets. That's where we will start the search, but really, I was going to have them check every piece of electronics brought. Mentally I drifted off again. It had taken getting Rachel pregnant to make me go home again. While on a two-week leave, we were married in her parent's backyard with a handful of her friends and family present. I hadn't even invited Abuela Sanja. I hadn't expected that many people to be there.

I had gotten her pregnant on my first leave back from Afghanistan when I was on my way to airborne training and married her four months later after IBOLC right before I entered Ranger School. The day after the ceremony I offered to take her out and find her an apartment, so she could be on her own, but she declined saying she wanted to be close to her mom.

She showed me the room they were turning into a nursery that only had a crib and changing table. I offered to take her to buy things for the baby, but she said they were waiting to find out if it was going to be a girl or a boy before they decorated. I asked her if she would come back to Newark and meet my parents.

I had only called home three times in the year since I had left. During each call my mother told me to call every few months, and that I didn't have to talk or tell them what was going on just say that I was still alive because she worried and always lit a candle for me. It was incredibly hard to call her and tell her I was coming home and bringing my pregnant wife.

My mother and father were thrilled. Welcoming me back as the prodigal son, they threw a big family party for us. When it came out that I only married her because I got her pregnant after a one-night stand my mother was less pleased but took me in her arms and said that every baby is a miracle. She was sure that being married and having a baby would change my life. I didn't have the heart to tell her that I wasn't going to stay married because we had already agreed that we would divorce after the baby was born.

The next week as I was preparing to leave I gave Rachel the money I had set aside to get her an apartment, almost $2000, so she could buy whatever she needed for the baby. She invited me to come to her doctor's appointment. Her stomach had a little baby bump when the doctor put the ultrasound wand to it and I got to see a picture of the baby moving. In that moment, it all became very real and Rachel had them print an extra ultrasound picture for me to take with me. At the end after they measured many different things and declared the baby developing normally, they told me it was going to be a girl.

Five months later I was late getting to the birth, and I can honestly say I was relieved. I wanted to be there for the birth in theory, but really what can the man do but watch her writhe in pain and cry out while the doctor tells her to push? When I was two days late after completing what was only my third but especially bloody Ranger mission I thought I had an acceptable excuse.

But my mother disagreed. She had taken two weeks off work to come and help Rachel with the baby, staying with Abuela Sanja. She was at the hospital for the birth and gave me hell for not even calling. Once I got past my mother and all the nurses, Rachel gave me a big smile and handed the newly fed baby to me. As I held her in my arms I promised this baby that I would always take care of her, always do everything I could for her and she became my Jewel. The brightest and best thing I had done with my life so far.

I promised Rachel that I would send her money every month and help pay for her to finish her college degree. Under the law I could have taken twelve weeks but my commanding officer asked me to come back in four. There were some big missions in the works that he wanted me to be a part of.

There was only so much I could do for Julie, hold her, change her, and burp her. But there was always Rachel, her mother and my mother there to take care of her too. I returned back after just two weeks. Rachel had bought a little four-page plastic photo sheath and gave it to me as I left. In it there were pictures of Julie right after she was born, two pictures of her awake and two pictures of her asleep, one with a small smile on her lips. Every month for the first year Rachel would send me a new picture to put in my mini-photo album with a description of Julie's growth and accomplishments each month.

The next year it was every few months. I really looked forward to the pictures as it was some of the only mail I would get. Then a letter came with the picture telling me she was getting married and he wanted to adopt Julie so they could be a whole family.

I came that December after the adoption was in the works to meet Ron and gauge his mettle. Rachel had already married him and I had already agreed to the adoption. I thought the best thing I could do for my baby was give her a family. But I wanted to make it clear that I wasn't giving her up because I didn't care, but because I did. I wanted her to have a father in her daily life. I let them know my intentions to always send money for support, asked to be able to visit, send presents and be an informal part of her life.

Rachel asked me for a picture of myself so Julie could always know who her biological father was and I sent a copy of the photo taken after Ranger graduation. Even though it had been two and a half years it was the only real photo I had of myself and, for the first time understanding what a photo meant, I sent a copy to my mother too.

After Julie was born I would call my mother semi-regularly just to tell her I was alive. On one of those short calls my dad got on to tell me how proud he was of me. He apologized for trying to force me into something that I didn't want and complemented me for having the drive and personal will to do my own thing and be so successful at it. He invited me to come home as often as I could, that I was missed and wanted.

I sent most of my pictures of Julie to my mother so she could start a photo album and continued to do so over the years. I only went home occasionally until I was discharged. I had spent too many years of my life away from my family and always felt uncomfortable around them. The SOCOM issue only gave me more excuse to stay away. But this past year I had been to Christmas Eve, Easter Mass, and four other family gatherings including a surprise birthday party for mama.

Now that this contact has put them all in danger I had to find the leak and plug it before I go off to plug Sergio for good. I quickly made it up the back stairs of the pecan stained patio and shook the sand from my boots. I pulled out my radio and told Ian, Eddie, Billy and Woody to report to the back patio of the first house.

When they arrived, I discussed the problem of a computer being hacked, emails read and possibly giving our location away. Then I brought up the possibility of an infection that is transmitting our location and they all agreed that was the more likely prospect. I told them I would get them everyone's computers and tablets, anything that could access the internet and that they should go through both possibilities. Ian explained that no one had any equipment with them and that they would each need a computer, wires to hook them together and specialized software he could have someone send him. I gave them a RangeMan credit card and sent them to the store to get what they needed with instructions to get it done tonight.

I went into the house and told everyone I needed them in the dining room and waited while they assembled. I asked everyone to pass me their completed lists of where they wanted to go this week.

"Okay, I need everyone's attention on this. We know that the men that came to the island this morning had our exact location. We just don't know how they got it. We know they planted physical trackers in shoes and suitcases. We're worried that they may have loaded a programmed tracker onto someone's electronics so every time they log in it is sending our location. I have four men that are going to go through every electronic device brought on this trip. We know the phones are clean because I just gave them to you so you can keep using them. But for the rest of tonight I'm asking everyone to log out, leave your laptops here in the dining room and bring every device that you brought that can get on-line. This includes tablets and any toy games that can access the internet, just leave them all here on the table."

I put a pad of sticky notes on the table with several pens. "Label all of your stuff so we know whose is whose." I told the assembled crowd as they blinked in disbelief.

"They are tracking us through our electronics?" Isabella asked.

"We don't know for sure, but we have to rule out every possibility and it's something we haven't checked. If you don't mind getting your kids electronics and bringing them here I would appreciate it."

The laptops piled on the table: Oshanna's, Leyla's, Richard's, Angelia's, and Diego's. When Stephanie went to put mine on the table I shook my head at her. Leyla, Richard, Diego and Isabella all left to go gather their kid's electronics.

"Babe, bring my laptop here." I took it from her and set it on the table next to me. "My laptop is clean there is no way someone broke into my apartment and bugged it." I explained. I gave her the sheets of activities everyone had given me and asked her to start going through them and marking which ones had the same outings on them.

Julio was hanging back clutching his laptop to his chest. "Julio, no one's looking at what you have on your computer unless you are secretly emailing the enemy and telling them where we are."

"No. Of course not." He looked offended.

I walked over to him and tried to look brotherly. "No one's going to mess with your porn or tell mamma about it." I was slightly louder than a whisper. "I'll make sure my men check it last, when everybody is in bed." I held out my hand to take it and he slowly handed it over.

"Julio, I don't really believe you are bugged but I'm going to have them check every piece of transmitting electronics."

Isabella and Diego came back in with three tablets and two phones. "I don't think these connect to the internet." Diego said putting down a pink and a green tablet, "but we brought them just in case. These phones do connect to the internet. They are our old phones and no longer have cellular service but we had bunches of movies downloaded on them that the kids watch."

"And Chris plays games on this one." She held up a square phone with a brown mottled case and set it on top of the other one."

"Thank you." I told them. I sorted through the piles and picked out Angelia's, Leyla's and Richard's computers and all four of the tablets from Leyla's kids. Based on what we knew these were the most likely candidates to be bugged and I wanted them checked first. I texted Ian to get mini USB cords and a cord for an Apple computer, noting that Angelia had a Mac and several of the kids had iPads.

I got a piece of paper and sat down at the table to organize the weeks activities. Steph came to join me and I turned to her. "What do you have so far?"

"Well almost everyone wants to go to the Griffith Observatory. Your parents and grandmothers want to go to the Getty and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Everyone with kids picked the Kid's Space Museum and Discovery Cube. Oshanna and Julio made a list together but the only approved activities were a sightseeing tour and Madame Tussauds. They added a whole list of things they want to do that are not on the approved list, clubs and things to do at night.

I wrote Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday across the top of my paper and down the side wrote everyone's names. For Tuesday, I put Oshanna and Julio down for an all day LA Stars and their homes six-hour tour. I listed all the families to go to the Discovery Cube LA, and my parents and _abuelas_ to the Getty and Getty Villa till six. Everyone meeting somewhere for dinner and going to Griffith Observatory for their 8:00 pm tour. Wednesday the families were split, Rachel's and Leyla's going to the Space Museum and Isabella's and Angelia's to the Zimmer Kids Museum. I had my parents and the _abuelas_ going to LA County Museum of Art and a big blank spot for Oshanna and Julio who had written down shopping on Rodeo drive, Studio Tours, Universal Studios and Disneyland as where they wanted to go for the week.

I picked up my phone, "Skyler, my most wonderful woman. You are my lifesaver and I need your help please." Stephanie bristled and gave me a dirty look.

"What do you need Ranger?"

"This is going to be a fun challenge. I need unique dining experiences for a group of fifty-one. We will need reservations for six or later every night through Friday. But that's not all my most fabulous travel agent. My sister Oshanna is unhappy with the activity choices. She is twenty-two, lives in New York and is totally into fashion, can you find some safe day and if possible evening options for her?"

"Of course, I'm sure there are a lot of fashion things in LA to do. Which do you need first?"

"Well, dinner is not till tomorrow night, and I have something planned for Oshanna tomorrow so take a day. Come up with as many activities as you can find for Oshanna because she is going to shoot half of them down on principle."

"You got it boss. I know your focus is on safety, but the Studio tours are rather safe and the theme parks have the advantage of screening everyone that enters."

"Get violence reports for me on the theme parks and studios, and a copy of their security protocol. You are making this a very pleasurable trip for my family. Thank you Skylar, you are my gorgeous, fabulous, amazing trip-maker and you are making me look good. I owe you."

"Just remember that when you get my bill." She retorted and laughed. "You are not a man that ever needs help or is willing to accept it so I appreciate being able to be here, for you, during this."

I smiled. "Well, I appreciate all your hard work. Send the violence reports as soon as you get them."

"I'll have them to you within the hour."

"Thanks, good bye." And I disconnected.

I turned to Stephanie who had her arms crossed and was glaring at me.

"Babe, I know you don't understand, but there is nothing between me and Skylar."

"But you are so nice to her. Over the top nice."

"Let me tell you a story." I told her more details about Danger and my promise to him.

"So, you CAN be polite, just not to me." She said at the end, got up, and stormed up the stairs.

To be continued…

A/N: Thank you all for your reviews! They are all read and appreciated! The family is finally safe and getting settled in California. This chapter was a lot about Ranger reflecting on his past. I hope you enjoyed learning more about him and how he became who he is. Let me know what you think. Please read and review.

As always big THANK YOU to my beta Sassysaint! You stick with me even as I write and rewrite chapters! Thank you for all your help!

Second Big THANK YOU to my sister, Jonelle. Who is giving my stories a thorough technical analysis (ie deep proof reading) Thank you for fixing all my many little mistakes.


	18. Chapter 18 California Beginnings

Chapter 18 California Beginnings

A/N I actually got two chapters written last week so here is a bonus chapter. 😊

 _I turned to Stephanie who had her arms crossed and was glaring at me._

" _Babe, I know you don't understand, but there is nothing between me and Skylar."_

" _But you are so nice to her. Over the top nice."_

" _Let me tell you a story." I told her all about Danger and my promise to him._

" _So, you CAN be polite: just not to me." She said at the end, got up, and stormed up the stairs with Marc quietly slipping up the stairs to follow her._

Damn, it had been so hard to learn how to talk to Skylar and now I realized I was going to have to do better with Stephanie. I locked my computer and set it aside with all the papers. I had to go talk to her and I had to figure out what to say. I went up to our room, passing Marc in the hallway, and knocked on the door before opening it to see her sitting on the end of the bed staring at her ring.

"Babe, the way I talk, the way I am is normal for me; I am abrupt, I get to the point. I have spent the last eight years in the military, not talking, well only talking when necessary. We are concise. How I talk to Skylar is unnatural for me. It took me a long time to be able to talk to her like that."

"But she means enough to you to learn to do it." The 'and I don't' was implied.

"Well I was under the threat of death or dismemberment."

"But still you care enough about her to be over the top gracious and polite on the phone. In all the years, I've known you, you've never said goodbye to me. Not one single time."

"Babe, I don't say goodbye to anyone, not my mother, my grandmothers, my sisters or my men."

"And not to me. I'm not worth enough in your life to respect me." Her shoulders went back as anger flashed in her eyes.

"Babe, I respect you, I love you. You're the most important person in my entire life. It's just in the armed services we don't say good bye. We finish and then we're done. We don't ask how your day is going either."

"Well this may come as a shock to you, because you run your business like the military, but you're a civilian now. You were discharged. You are out of the military. And I don't care how abrupt you are with your men but there are two women in your life you are going to start being nice to. Me and your mother. She deserves your respect too. Actually, make that three. You're going to respect my mother too."

"Babe."

"No Ranger, that's the third time you have talked to her in front of me and you're super polite, you tell her how wonderful she is and you always say goodbye. I'm going to be your wife and you are going to start treating me with the same respect or I'll shoot you with your own gun!" I had to fight to keep my lips from twitching. I knew she was seriously mad, she was really hurt and I was going to have to make some changes.

I walked over and sat down next to her on the bed. I reached out and took her right hand in mine as I turned to her. "Babe I will change. It's not going to be easy for me," I looked deep in her sad eyes, "I will get better. I would do anything for you and I know what you're asking for isn't that much but it goes against my programming," I sighed. "It's something I…" I didn't know what else to say. "It took me years to learn to talk to her like that so you'll just have to be patient."

"I know you can do better than that, when you talk to me just pretend you're talking to her. You don't even hesitate, you sweet talk her and don't think twice about it." I saw tears forming in her eyes and I knew she felt neglected, disrespected, betrayed and second best in my life.

"Stephanie. You are the most amazing woman in my world and I thank God every day that you are now mine." Ok slightly blasphemous but true. "You are the most important person to me. I will do anything I can for you." Like kill a guy who has threatened to hurt you. I wish she would ask for that because it would be so much easier than this. "Babe I will always talk to you like that on the phone and in private, but not too much in public, I still have a badass reputation to maintain." I explained and then leaned in to kiss her.

"Not so fast." She said leaning back. "You talk to her like that in public."

"Not in public. I do it in front of you, but I never talk to her in front of my men or anybody else. I'd never live it down." She sat staring over my head and I knew she was thinking about it.

"and I promise to say goodbye to your mom and mine." I added.

Her eyes flew back to mine and she smiled, "Okay, but I'm holding you to that, or I'll still get your gun and shoot you."

"Ok." I told her. Then I thought for a moment. "Any specific place you plan on shooting me?" I asked offhandedly.

She smirked, "No place life threatening, or permanently damaging, but it would lay you up for a while, like maybe your foot….and you would have to lay in bed," and she pulled her hand out of mine, turned towards me, moved them both to my waist and started feeling her way down. "and I would have to give you a sponge bath." She smiled at me and I kissed her. Long and slow and deep. I knew most of the families were putting their kids to bed and if we disappeared for thirty minutes no one would notice.

I had specifically assigned Stephanie and me to the room at the end of the hall next to my men. I knew they would never say anything to me and if my sexual exploits went through the ranks it would only improve my standings with my men. In my life, I had only met one man that came close to having the same sexual stamina as me and he had gotten married a few years ago. He and I made great wingmen because where everyone else could only go two or three rounds and then want to leave, he could go all night like me and still want to go again in the morning.

I'll never forget the night we picked up an entire Bridal party on a bet. Eight bridesmaids and the bride. We rented the honeymoon suite and spent the night fucking while the women played drinking games. After we rented the room, we told the ladies to order room service and watch a movie, we'd be back in half an hour.

We came back forty minutes later with a cooler full of ice, vodka, rum, tequila rose liqueur, coke, three 6-packs of redbull, four different kinds of fruit juice, maraschino cherries, whipped cream, chocolate syrup, chips, dip, snacks, four twelve packs of condoms, playing cards, sex cards, dirty dice and four more bottles of the rose wine they had been drinking.

We had bet in the car about who could use the most condoms. At eight am, we had drunk most of the rum and vodka with redbull as the mixer and were happily drunk, wide-awake and mostly sated. We had used thirty-one of the condoms, he was one ahead of me but all the women had passed out and there was no one left to fuck to even up the score. I had tried to wake three different girls up with kisses and soft petting, but two turned me down flat, rolling over and mumbling for me to go away and the third dashed to the bathroom and threw up.

So, we gave up, ordered room service, showered and sat around in robes hacking into their phones and deleting all the pictures that showed our faces. We had told them when they started they couldn't take pictures of our faces so we felt justified in doing it. I sent a bunch of the pictures to my phone so we could prove to the guys we had won their bet. The night had been fun, the girls nice, the sex excessive but it would never compare to one time with Stephanie.

I was waiting till we got married but I was going to give her a set of dirty dice, maybe a sex game or deck of dirty cards. Then I would introduce chocolate syrup, cherries, whipped cream and finally different flavors of fat free cake frosting. She thinks I don't like desserts what she doesn't know is that the plate you eat your dessert off of makes all the difference. Besides the little bit of frosting I spread on her is nothing compared to one piece of cake that she so loves. Oh, now that I think about it we would go through whole desserts. Flan, pudding, jello, ice cream, cheese cake, pies, oh endless assortments of fresh baked pies. I'll show her how I like warm fruit pie and she'll want to feed it to me every night.

If I know her she will want a turn to eat it off me too! That of course would be part of the purpose and a big part of the plan to introduce desserts into the bedroom. _Dios_ I could just imagine her moans in the bedroom as she ate her favorite desserts off me. I smiled slightly even as I looked down to see my hard, pulsing member being dragged out by her soft and tender hands.

Tonight, I was going to show her how I felt about her and I stopped her exploring hands that had my pants open and dropped down to her feet. I removed her sandals kissing her feet, the inside of her ankles then stroking my way up to her knees that I knew to be sensitive. I kissed her there too and stood up bringing her with me and kissed her hard and intense while I divested us of all our clothes.

Minutes later I tossed her onto the bed and began crawling my way up. Kissing her calves, knees, licking and kissing my way up the inside of her thighs. I jumped over her sweet spot, kissing up her left hip bone and across her stomach to dip my tongue inside her bellybutton. She squealed and laughed and pushed my head away.

I kissed up her right ribs to circle her nipple that was hardened in anticipation. Next I kissed over to her shoulder and across to her neck. She was breathing hard and squirming with expectation. I jumped to her chin, kissed it, kissed her nose and then settled on her mouth where I devoured her. Her arms wrapped around my back, clutching at me and pulling me closer. I laid my body down on hers, my dick resting in the center of her legs, her hardened nipples poking into my chest, holding up just enough weight so she could still breathe.

After several minutes kissing her mouth, I moved down her neck to her breasts, and lavished excessive praise on them. In between kisses, licking and sucking, I told her how much I loved them, how perky they were, spectacularly responsive, so sweet, hard nipples like rock candy. I tugged on them with my teeth and she moaned. I worked my way back down with her writhing body moving underneath me as I kissed my way to her right hip bone, with her fingers digging into my shoulders trying to direct where I should go.

I made my way over and kissed her soft hairs, trimmed in a straight line like a runway showing me where to land my plane. I licked and kissed her clit, worshipping that little nub while her hands dug into my hair holding me in place while she moaned and thrust her hips up to meet my mouth. I slipped two fingers inside her wet tight heat and started a slow rhythmic stroke. I kept it up slowly increasing my pace; when I lifted to look at her as she was gasping for air, she groaned out a "Nooooo," forcing my head back down with her hands, thrusting her hips harder up toward me and I began to suck. Lightly at first, then I took her nub between my teeth and sucked and bit tenderly until she shattered.

"Carlos…" came out in a ragged groan as her whole body tensed up and released. _Dios_ , I am so hard for her and when she calls my name I want to slam into her and fuck her till next week. I moved my mouth down to her pussy to lap at all the hot juices that were starting to come and I pulled out my fingers replacing them with my tongue, licking and licking in nice long strokes parting her lips and tonguing her hole. After several minutes, she started pulling my hair up, in an attempt to pull me on top of her.

"Ranger, Carlos, please." I hear. I know she gets really sensitive for a few moments after she comes and needs a moment's break. I make my way up her body kissing random sensitized spots as I go, listening to her gasp and squirm underneath me. I reach her mouth and kiss it, and kiss, and kiss. When I pull away I am achingly hard and desperate for her.

I grab a condom, slip it on and move over her. I know she is still sensitive and her inner muscles are still twitching and contracting. I feel them clamping down on me as I slowly slide inside her, reveling in the way she is so tight, hot and ready for me. "Babe" I growled, holding myself still so she can relax and begin to adjust to my size. So tight, so good, if I move I'm going to lose it like a fresh-faced fourteen-year-old.

I never equated emotions to good sex. I was always exceptionally detached to my one-nighters. But my feelings for Stephanie added a whole new dimension to the sex. Feelings that make me want her more, make me crave being inside her like an all-natural high that I can't get enough of. Making my release feel like my whole body is awash in pleasure, my mind overwhelmed with it, my heart like it is going to simply explode from my chest.

 _Dios_ , it has never been this good and it seems to just keep getting better. I focused on bringing her back in the game. I kissed her for several moments until I felt her relax, letting me slide in further, and then she tilted her hips up and moved against me. That was my green light and I began to move, achingly slow inside her, then faster. Setting a gently pounding rhythm that I knew from my past I could easily sustain.

I realized one thing I had never done was see how long one erection could last while continually fucking. I could already last so long I have never pushed it, not wanting to completely wear my partner out. That time in the hot tub I was focused on how many times I could make Stephanie cum and stopped at five because I was wearing her out. Of course, that position required her to ride me and her thighs were trembling as much, if not more, as her insides were by the time we were done.

I was going to have to repeat the challenge in a bed, seeing how long I could last and how many times I could make her cum in one fucking session. Mouths and hands not counting, strictly cocky satisfaction. I smiled to myself and kept going and going and I could feel her build around me. I slowed the pace and leaned down to take her lips and spur her engines into high gear. When her heels were pressing into the bed as she worked her hips in time with mine I took it to the next level, speeding up until she arched against me groaning and tightening around me. I let her drag me over the top and every muscle tightened. I couldn't even breathe as my lungs froze, everything stiffened and I was releasing into her over and over and over again.

I collapsed on top of her, feeling bad, worried one day I wouldn't have any strength left and crush her. I lifted a little of my weight off her and her arms tightened around my neck and she sought my lips even as she was working to slow her breathing. When we broke away again, I put my forehead to hers and looked in those fathomless blue eyes and told her, "I love you. Don't ever doubt that I would do anything for you."

She smiled brightly at me, "Even come take a shower with me?"

"Of course. Just give me a minute." And I felt myself going half hard inside her again at the thought. I pulled out of her and discarded the condom, rolling to my side and pulling her into me. This might not be the best time to discuss it but no time like the present.

"Babe, when we get back… can we find alternative preventive measures? Like the pill or better yet the shot?" She looked surprised at my question. "I want to feel you, skin to skin. I don't want to live in condoms forever."

"Sure, I guess. When I was married before I got on the pill, but then I went so long without sex I stopped. I just have to go see a doctor again." She said as she snuggled into me.

Twenty minutes later we'd done it again in the shower and were redressed and headed back downstairs, Ramon trailing a long distance behind us, to finish the lists and see what Skylar had sent me. I checked my email on my phone and found she had already sent me the security protocol and a detailed breakdown of crimes in the parks for two years ago which she said was the last year published.

In the living room, all the women but my mother and grandmothers had congregated watching a comical movie about witches and magic. Picking up my laptop and the papers, I took Stephanie's hand and began to drag her into the den, when I realized all the men, except my father were in there watching one of the last Transformer movies. I led her into the library, with a smaller 40-inch TV that no one was using, and sat on the couch pulling her down next to me.

I handed her the papers and asked her to number the most popular places to go after the ones I already had on my list. Specifically, for my parents and grandmothers. After several minutes of scanning condensed reports, it seems both Disneyland and Universal Studios used both metal detectors and an intense screening protocol at the entrances and had seen no gun violence in their parks. Most of the crimes committed at the different parks were shoplifting, passing counterfeit money and tickets, and cars being broken into. Very low numbers of violent crimes, the most common being rape or attempted rape and I knew in our large group with bodyguards that was nothing to worry about.

My biggest concern was that the men that were after the women might find us while we were exposed in small enough groups to shoot or take a woman out. But the gate protocol would make it almost impossible to get a gun in the park and the park was separated from the surrounding neighborhood businesses by an eight-foot wall. Nothing a ladder couldn't overcome, but they had an army of employees watching for such things. It was such a farfetched idea that they would know we were in the park and find us amongst the thousands of visitors on any given day.

I turned to Stephanie. "Babe what do you thing about a day at the theme parks?"

"That would be great! I love rollercoasters and I know Julie, Becky and Maggie would love it too. In fact, they asked me to talk to you about going to the Harry Potter ride at Universal Studios. They really want to do that." She smiled big at me.

I smiled back. "Well, Skylar has sent me the crime reports for the different theme parks and Universal Studios seems the safest. Their biggest problem is shoplifting. They have a very strict screening protocol at the entrance and they have an 'everyone involved' policy. That means all their employees are watching all the time for anything or anyone suspicious. Their person on person crime numbers are very low."

"I think that taking Julie to go on the Harry Potter ride could win you some kind of 'Father of the Year' award, and your nieces and nephews will nominate you for 'Coolest Uncle Ever.'"

"Let's go talk to the women."

We went into the living room, passing Ramon who was standing right outside the doorway, just as a really funny scene came on and everyone was laughing. I stepped up next to the large 65-inch screen and asked them to pause the movie. I went into the dark man cave that had every light but the TV turned off and asked the men to join us for a minute.

"Ladies, my travel assistant has sent me the crime reports for Universal Studios Theme Park and their security protocol. After reviewing them I am reconsidering going to a theme park for a day. How many of your kids do you think would be interested?"

"My kids are the first in line," Leyla said.

"Wild elephants couldn't drag them away." Richard added.

"My kids would love it. They love theme parks but have gotten a little tired of the ones in Florida." Rachel said.

"They are a little spoiled when it comes to theme parks." Ron said.

"My kids have never been to a theme park. I know they will be thrilled." Isabella said and Diego nodded. Isabella had just graduated with her nursing degree two-years ago and had started working right away to pay off her student loans and help support their growing family. I knew that time was as much an issue as money for them.

"Ok, I already have scheduled the next two days of museums but if that goes well I am going to schedule Universal Studios for Thursday." Everyone agreed that it sounded like a good idea.

"Great, do me a favor. Don't tell the kids yet. I will announce it at breakfast and explain that they have to be good for the next two days to earn going to the theme park. Everyone can go back to their movies, but Oshanna I'd like to talk to you more. Can you get your laptop from the table and come in the library with us so we can figure some activities for you this week?" Skylar had sent me a list of options that I knew would interest her.

I took Stephanie back to the library, we sat back down on the couch where she cuddled into me and I put my arm around her. A few minutes later I heard Oshanna calling me. "We're in the library." I called back to her and she popped her head in.

"Oshanna come sit next to me and let's look at the options. I have you down for the full day LA Star's tour tomorrow. There is a thriving fashion industry here in LA. There are two fashion tours: the first one is a tour of celebrity's homes and a shopping spree on Rodeo drive. The second one is a three-day tour, the first day of LA and Warner Brother's Studios, the second day has the Fashion District, Downtown's Santee Alley, the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, Little Tokyo, and Le Brea avenue."

"Personally, I think you would be happiest on the tour we have scheduled for tomorrow and then the second day of this tour. What do you think?"

"Can you do that? Only do one day of the tour?"

"We will see in the morning, but I'm betting my travel assistant can arrange it if that's what you want."

"Hot Potato! That would be awesome. Steph, do you want to come too?"

"I'm not sure, I was planning to be with Carlos." This warmed my heart that she wanted to stay with me but I knew I was going to be working the next two days, not running around the town having fun. I would definitely go on Thursday, in a park that big we needed all the security we could manage.

"Babe you can see from the list where everyone is going. I'm going to be staying behind working on the rest of this trip. I have paperwork to do and stuff from the office I have to deal with. Go have fun touring and shopping." I leaned over close to her ear. "I'll even raise the shopping limit on your credit card."

She sat back eyes wide. "You don't have to do that."

I leaned over to her ear again. "I do because I want you to buy something nice to wear."

"Oshanna, I'll even raise the limit on your credit card to $2500 so you can shop. Tomorrow night we are all planning on going to the observatory. But Wednesday night I'm going to look into some comedy clubs or someplace you can wear whatever you buy." She squealed and hugged me sideways trying not to dump her computer off her lap. "Once I can confirm what you can do I will send it to your email. Check it throughout the day tomorrow."

"Thanks Bro, you're the best!" She said as she sprung from the room. Great now she was picking things up from Julio.

Stephanie took the page and wrote Universal Studios Park on Thursday for all the families. I wasn't sure what my parents would want but expected if the whole family was going they would probably want to go too.

Tuesday May 19 05:30

I was up at 05:30 to go running, passing Ramon who was standing in the hallway a few feet from our door. He had quickly tucked his cellphone away and I was sure he had been playing on it. I didn't care, I would rather have him awake playing on his phone than asleep from boredom staring at the walls all night. "You are making hourly rounds and check-ins?" I verified.

"Yes, Sir."

"Carry-on."

I went into the kitchen of the third house to find two men cooking large piles of eggs and bacon. I gathered all the dayshift men and told them the basic plans for the day, where everyone was headed, and asked them to join the family in the first house at 07:45. I also let them know that shifts were changing to 08:00 till 22:00, or once we were back home. That tonight we were going to the Observatory at 22:00 and they were on their targets till we got back home. That we were taking ten SUVs and that the largest families would be in the SUVs with third row seats. I passed out the endangered forms, one for each woman the men were protecting. Told them about local restaurants they can order from and dismissed them to go back to their eating and looked for Ian, Eddie, Billy or Woody. I found Ian and Eddie.

"I assume if you had found anything last night you would have notified me."

"No tracking programs found and no incriminating emails telling where we are. All the electronics are in the correct houses on the kitchen tables." Ian informed me.

"Oshanna is emailing with work, and the kids are emailing with teachers and classmates, Julio is emailing several girls, who all seem to think they are dating him, but no information that would give our location away. He does have an impressive porn collection though, he needs a computer with more memory. His is filled up with videos." Eddie added.

"Good work. Keep the new computers and equipment until we are back at RangeMan."

I was back in our room to wake Stephanie at 07:00. We had a nice shower together skipping the frolicking because we had done a lot of it last night and I was very conscious not to wear her out. When we got downstairs, my mother was in the kitchen cooking up a storm of French toast, while my _Abuela_ Rosa was slicing up a large selection of fruit.

"Good morning Mama." I greeted her as I kissed her on her cheek. The French toast transporting me back to when I was little. " _Buenas dias, Abuela_." And I kissed her on the cheek.

"Get plates and eat while it's hot." Mama pointed to a pile of plates and forks on the counter. I took a plate and slipped three slices of French toast on it. I got a vanilla yogurt out of the fridge, because my mother never would buy plain and also got a bunch of fruit, including apple and orange slices, blueberries, a whole banana and some pineapple.

Stephanie joined me with a plate full of French toast swimming in butter and syrup. There were two apple slices on the side and I knew she had only taken them for my benefit. Slowly more family filed in and I thought about what my men were having for breakfast. I ate with the yogurt and fruit spread on top of my French toast instead of the customary butter and syrup. When I was through eating I put my plate in the dishwasher and walked over to the third house. The kitchen here had been set aside for my men. Night shift was in there now, cooking eggs and bacon and making a pile of toast.

"Report" I said to Ramon who was at the stove.

"No noises, no movement, nothing happened all night long."

"Good." I got the attention of all the men gathered around the kitchen and dining room. "Starting tonight I am changing the shifts to 22:00 to 08:00. We are going to be at the observatory tonight. Come on shift as normal and watch for us to get home. Also, there is a little plaza outside this housing development with a breakfast place, a sub shop, and Italian and Greek restaurants. Feel free to order out for any meals as long as there is a car to go pick it up. Here," I picked them up off the counter, "are the menus. No food deliveries." Several men whooped.

"No more eating this sad excuse for food." Chet said and pulled out his phone to call in an order.

"We are taking ten SUVs, leaving you guys two. Here are the keys." I put two keys with fobs and rental tags on the counter. I passed out one letter of protection for each woman to the men assigned to their houses, leaving one copy each for my personal file. "Catch up on your sleep. Everyone will be gone today so it will be quiet in the houses."

I walked back over to the first house to find all the kids sitting around the dining room table or on the back porch eating. The living room was filled with eating adults. I addressed everyone inside, what the activities were for the week and told the kids if they were good the next two days we would go to Universal Studios theme park on Thursday.

Cheers went up around the room and I got a lot of questions, especially from Shylia who wanted to know when we could go to Disneyland and see the princesses. I told her I wasn't sure, that I would have to talk to her parents, and Isabella came over to tell me that Shylia was into dressing up as all her favorite princesses. I told her Friday wasn't scheduled yet and maybe we could work it in.

I went over the rules for the day and then went outside to repeat everything. Julie, Maggie, and Becky were outside laid back in loungers, with their food balanced across their laps. Freddie and Chris were there too sitting at two chairs around the glass table with a solid blue umbrella. I ran through the plans for the next two days, the rules everyone had to follow, and then told them if everyone was good and we didn't have any problems we would go to Universal Studios Theme park on Thursday.

Squeals went around, Julie got up and hugged me enthusiastically. I got several 'Yeahs' and 'That's great'. And for the second time this trip I wanted to spend more time with these kids and my family. I got my family ready to go and had everyone gather in the living room with all my dayshift men.

"No trackers were found on the electronics. Thank you everyone, you can take yours back. They are on the tables in your respective houses. Now for today, everyone knows where they are going. Two men to each woman. Men raise your hands as your names are called. Mama you have Erik and Francis, Stephanie you have Marc and Tiger. Abuela Rosa, you have Manuel and Gavin, Abuela Sanja you have Vince and Ian, Leyla – Hal and Tony, Angelia – Woody and Dillon, Isabella – Cal and Red, Oshanna – Lester and Sport, Julie – Junior and Scott, Rachel – Eddie and Pace. Bobby, you are going with Oshanna and Stephanie today. Zip and Zero you are extra on the main group. Ram, you are on my mother and grandmothers. Everyone going on the LA tour, you have to be to your destination by 9:00, be outside at the SUVs in five minutes. Rachel, Isabella, Leyla – your families get the SUVs that still have the third-row seats so your whole family can fit."

I followed Stephanie up the stairs to make sure she had everything she needed to go.

"Leave your Plum ID here. Only take your assigned one." I told her.

"Why?"

"You don't want anyone to see you have two IDs in your wallet and question it." I told her. She took her Stephanie Plum ID out of her wallet and put her new ID in its place.

"Bonito 'Bonnie' Guerrero? Who comes up with these names? What name is on your ID?"

"We have an ID generator that recommends names and combinations based on what nationality you start with. Your name is Spanish and translates to Beautiful Fighter. Whoever made these for us, I think they picked out your name rather than use the generator."

"They made me 28 years old! Somebody was being very nice to me. Do you think I can pass for twenty-eight?" She asked as she put her wallet into her purse and slung it over her shoulder.

"Of course, you have no lines on your face there is no reason you couldn't pass for twenty-eight."

"What is the name on your ID?"

"I have several IDs, everywhere we go is booked under a different ID. Let's get you down to the SUV. We don't want to hold up the caravan." I put my hand in the small of her back and let her towards the door. The truth is that I left with ten different IDs. But Bones had been a smart ass and made me another ID: 'Vengar Guerrero', which roughly translates to 'revenge soldier' or 'avenging fighter'. I was debating using it as my ID to travel to Colombia. He had added a passport and I think that was his plan.

I walked her down to the black SUV that had Tiger and Marc in the front seat and pulled her into my arms. We had been together every moment of every day since last Thursday and instead of being grateful to get away from her I was missing her and she hadn't even left yet. I wanted to be back on the island where we could just be together uninterrupted and safe.

Traipsing around town didn't feel safe to me. I didn't care what the rest of my family did, I wanted Stephanie to stay by my side. It was an irrational thought and feeling and I almost shook my head to dislodge it. They were going in an enclosed bus that has tinted windows, no one could see them, Marc and Tiger would be there. I hadn't worked with Tiger personally but he was also ex-special forces and I knew she would be safe with them. The greatest danger to her was probably going to be whatever she chose to eat for lunch.

Yet the next thing I knew I was having her scoot over and I was climbing in beside her. I don't know what was with me. I had important things to do and she didn't need me to ride with her there, but I closed the door and had her scoot back over to sit in the middle seat, next to me. I think my men were just as surprised to see me climb in the car, but I couldn't help it.

The irrational fear that something bad was going to happen to her now that we were engaged was stuck in my heart. Even though there was no way for Boris or his men to know we got engaged, in my mind there was a huge target on her back and I had painted it there. _Dios,_ she was like my own personal sun bringing light to my life and now that I had decided to make her mine it would destroy me to lose her because one of the many people coming after me got to her, hurt her, killed her.

I took a deep breath. I had to deal with this. I couldn't let her mean so much, it was stopping me from doing what I had to do in my life but I knew once we were safe from Sergio it would get better. I could still see her hanging there, eyes closed, seven stories up, knowing that if they dropped her she would die before I could get to her. I hadn't even known if she was alive as I climbed the ten stories to the roof and could still imagine the heartbreak I would have felt to get her down and find out that she was already dead.

She was the most fortunate woman I know, always coming out alive and unscathed no matter what she got herself into. In my life, I have always come out on top no matter the situation. I might be shot, stabbed, blown up or in one case have a brick wall fall on top of me but I always got the mission accomplished and got my men home. She gets repeatedly kidnapped and amazingly always gets away unharmed. One of her kidnappers burned himself up with a blow torch, her sister rammed the house with a van, a bus driver showed up with an Uzi, a guy hearing a wooden tiki showed up and the block she was tied to got stuck in the guardrail and I managed to get there before she falls in the water.

It's like she has a magical mojo always protecting her, even coming through mostly unhurt after that video showed her being abused. Having another woman take her place while she was tied up in the bathroom. I know I have to let her go and I have two of my best men on her protection detail, but part of me wants to call Tank and form an impenetrable ring of armed muscle around her.

I clicked off her seatbelt and she protested as I pulled her sideways on to my lap.

"Carlos! What are you doing?"

"Babe." I wrapped my arms around her and held her close. She put her hands against my chest pushing away looking up into my face.

"Ranger?"

"You're going to be gone all day, I just want to hold you for a minute."

"We're just going on a tour. If you're so afraid you can come with us."

"Babe" It was all I could say. She was right, she was so right. I had to let her go, we had to move on. I leaned down to her ear and her arms relaxed and she leaned against me. I whispered, "I know that everything will be ok. You have my best men on you. But every time I close my eyes I see you hanging off that building and I never want to let you out of my arms ever again. You have your watch," I tapped it even as I spoke. "You'll be fine. Logically I know this but my heart is having a hard time. When I told you last week in your apartment that it hurt to let you out of my arms ever again…it was true. I just want to wrap my arms around you and never let go." She relaxed fully against me and laid her head on my shoulder looking up at me.

She put her right hand on my left cheek and I turned my head and kissed her palm. She lifted her hand and put it back on my cheek turning my head to face her. "Ranger, I'm fine. Everything is going to be fine. We're going to be riding around in an enclosed bus in downtown LA and in posh neighborhoods looking at mansions through locked gates. We're going to eat lunch at a farmer's market. Nothing scary. No bad guys. I have two of your best men with me. It's going to be quiet and boring. But if you're really that worried you're welcome to come along."

She smiled up at me that sweet innocent smile of hers and I felt the tight band on my heart easing. My gut was telling me that everything was going to be okay, my mind knew it too. It was my heart looking at the fading bruises hiding under her make-up and remembering that video that couldn't let go. I wanted to kiss her senseless, but instead I nodded to her and let her slide off my lap and put her seatbelt back on.

I took her hand, entwined her fingers in mine and absentmindedly rubbed circles on the back of it with my thumb. She looked up at me questioningly and I gave her a small smile. Life had to move on, I had to let her go live her life and know that she would be okay, like she always is. I leaned over and kissed her on her forehead.

I wanted to tell her how I felt. I loved her, truly, madly, deeply. I thought those were some sappy lyrics until now. Now I feel about her in ways I never thought were possible. "I will be here to pick you up at the end of the tour. Be happy and safe today and have fun." My phone beeped again and I checked the read out. "That is Skylar telling me she can get tickets for the second day of that fashion tour for Oshanna. Do you want to go with her too?"

"Sure, that sounds like fun. I'll probably need to get more luggage for the extra clothes I'm going to buy, since you raised my credit limit." She smiled widely at me.

"Anything for you Babe." I gave her an answering smile. "But limit yourself to only buying one thing for Oshanna, otherwise when she realizes you have a higher limit she will have you buying out every store."

She smiled widely at me. "How about I limit her to $2000?"

"Babe I just raised her limit to $2500. Tell her whatever the most expensive thing she wants you'll buy but only one thing." I paused thinking about the wisdom of that idea. "On second thought, she'll show up with an $8000 dress and you'll have to say no. Okay, I'm going to let you use your judgement. Try to spend less than $2000 on her. There is no limit for yourself."

"Okay, I can do that. As much as I like shopping, I just want to see how the designs out here differ from what we have on the east coast. Maybe buy some shoes."

"Buy yourself something really nice and I will take you to a place that's worthy of it."

We pulled into an underground parking garage and my men circled around until they found spots marked LA Tours and parked. Two more SUVs pulled in and I wondered if Julio had insisted on driving himself until I saw that Woody was driving and Dillon was in the passenger seat. Angelia had come and probably brought her brood that would get bored or have potty problems on the long trip.

When she rounded the van followed by Bobby and no little bodies, I got angry knowing my parents had given up their day at the Getty to take care of her little ones. I took Stephanie's hand and led the way up the elevator with her guards then motioned for Oshanna's team to wait for the next one. Once on street level I led the way to the front door of LA Tours. In the office, I walked up to the very happy brunette, on the phone, sitting behind a dark fake wood desk with a sign on the front that read Welcome to LA Tours. The name plate by the computer read Cheryl.

I paid for eleven tickets, gathered all the guards and passed out the tickets. I provided them with the tour route information and got the keys from Marc for a SUV. I told them to text me when they were on their way back and I would meet them here.

I went over to Stephanie, who was now standing talking to Oshanna, Angelia and Julio. I passed out tickets to everyone, letting them know that their guards would always get out first at every stop and that they needed to stay together in a group.

A perky five foot five blonde came out from a back room and introduced herself to the group as Ashlyn, a Los Angeles native that knew everything about the city and its beaches. She was distracted for a moment by all the hunky men in black as she went around the group getting names and collecting tickets. Julio looked disappointed as he was trying to get her attention but realized he was no competition for the heavily muscled Rangemen.

Oshanna took great pleasure in explaining that all the men in black with stun guns strapped to their sides were their bodyguards because their lives had been threatened. Ashlyn was properly impressed and concerned and asked if it was safe for them to be walking down the street and Oshanna assured her that with their guards they were safe.

I turned to Stephanie, gave her hand a squeeze and kissed her on the top of her head. "I'll be here to pick you up in six hours." I told her and stepped away. She stepped up to me for a kiss. I leaned down and gave a quick peck on her lips. She looked at me questioningly. I guess I was going to have to explain to her that I don't make out in public and especially not in front of my men. Okay so once in a while there had been kissing where the monitors could see us, but that was minimal and I usually scrambled the cameras.

Ashlyn slapped on a big smile and started the tour with a walk down Hollywood Boulevard's Walk of Fame. I watched the group follow her out the front door and stood there for a moment getting my bearings. I pulled out my phone and created a texting group for the men on Mama, my _abuelas_ , Leyla, Isabella, Rachel and Julie. I requested updates and learned that everyone was on the way to the Discovery Cube and no one was going to the Getty.

I knew that my parents would enjoy seeing their grandkids all day, but really wanted to work in some quiet enriching time for them and my _abuelas_ ; they deserved a break from all this craziness. I looked up some lingerie stores to find one that was nearby. 'Be My Baby' lingerie and novelty store was further down on Hollywood Boulevard. I keyed it into my GPS and headed there.

My plan to wear Stephanie out so she would sleep naked was half working. Problem was if we started out in the shower she would put her old sweats on and it would take me till midnight or 02:00 to get her naked for the night. If she was going to insist on wearing something I was going to buy her satin and lace.

I looked around for a while seeing outfit after outfit that were skimpy and hot. Outfits I would love to see Stephanie wear but that I knew she wouldn't be into for a while. Men are very visual creatures and seeing our women dressed up gives us fuel for our fantasies even if that outfit is only worn for five minutes before we rip it off. Towards the back I found what I was looking for two 4-way displays of baby doll dresses with matching thongs.

I picked out three, a black one that was sheer but not completely see through with a matching thigh length robe. A red one with scalloped white lace along the bust and hem lines, but had six inches of tight stretchy see-through lace covering the waist. The third was a silky fuchsia pink with a deep V in the bust, lined with black lace ending in a little black bow, the bottom was slightly longer than the others as it had a black ruffle flowing out from under the pink all the way around the bottom. I also got the matching robe. I would give her this one tonight.

Then I couldn't help myself, I got a black teddy that was an X, crossing the breasts going down into a high waist, high cut lacy bottom half. This would emphasize her breasts, her little waist, her long legs and her full butt that I love. I had the sales lady gift wrap each one in boxes with tissue paper and a bow on the outside. I wrote a small letter in the bottom right corner that matched the color of the dress inside and an X for the smokin' hot teddy.

I headed back to the house and called Tank to find out how the investigation was going. He asked me to hold while he got Bones on the line. "We've found five main properties where he seems to have residences." he explained. "Three in Colombia. He stays the most at his southern compound where he has his newest wife and a three-year-old son. A property in Panama where another of his wives lives with three more kids and one in Venezuela where he has a mistress. There are seventeen other houses listed under his various businesses but he doesn't seem to stay in any of them. We've found the emerald and uranium mines. Finally, there are sixty-eight more properties and lands under his businesses and distant holdings he has under various names."

"We've found eight planes, twelve cargo ships, two personal cruisers, his trucking company and a fleet of smaller fishing boats that are registered under three different corporations. Most of his planes are cargo planes that make weekly international flights from small airports that don't record who or what is on the plane. We are looking closely at a small ten-person prop plane and a twenty-two-person turbo prop that only stay in the region but are very active. Colombian flight records are not directly searchable but we have been hacking airports one at a time starting with the ones closest to his compounds and converting them into searchable files. We need a couple more days to get a complete picture, but so far we can tell that his small prop plane makes regular trips around Colombia during the week, twice a month the turbo-prop takes a long weekend in Venezuela, and once a month it goes to Panama for several days, usually a Saturday morning till Monday night."

"So where do you expect him to be this weekend?"

"The pattern is not perfect, we've only been able to go back three months. By tomorrow we should have six months of records and be better able to tell. This past weekend his turbo prop didn't fly anywhere that we can find, so our best guess for this weekend is Venezuela. We will know for sure by Friday because he always leaves Thursday afternoon or Friday morning when going there. This is assuming that it is him on the plane. We have not been able to confirm flight manifests with any of the flights yet, that is located on a different server and Hector was going to focus today on hacking them."

"Do it and notify me as soon as you can verify passengers. Send me a list of all his businesses and what they are. I'll be back at the house in thirty minutes, I want aerial views of all his holdings so start searching for them." I disconnected as a plan was forming in my brain. I drove in my zone all the way back to the houses. After surviving an ambush by Mario, Ramon, Chester and Gino with loaded LSATs that I was expecting and complemented them on, I spent the next three hours searching through aerial photographs, figuring out where his active cocaine fields were.

I was going to burn him to the ground, blow up his mines, his planes, ships, destroy his businesses and ruin him before I torture and kill him. I would take him apart piece by piece and show all my enemies that if they threaten what's mine, nothing and nowhere is safe from me. I was sending a message that would ricochet around the world.

To be continued…

A/N: Thank you all for your great reviews! They make me smile and laugh and motivate me to keep writing. Garbonzobeans, so excellent you made me laugh! Bonnie, Mission MSHF! Make Stephanie his Forever. That is perfect! If Ranger thought in acronyms I would work it into a monologue. Well just have to see. Aruvqan great idea with the hotel. May have to work it in the future.

Another day getting everyone ready to go. I had to laugh at Ranger, because he was supposed to give Stephanie a panty melting kiss and send her on her way. Instead he climbed into the SUV and messed up the plan for the chapter. One thing I have learned in writing this story is that sometimes characters do and say what they want no matter what you have planned. Especially 'nobody's going to tell him what to do' Ranger. Anyway, he told me it was worth it because he got to stop for the lingerie. LOL Please read and review.

As always big THANK YOU to my beta Sassysaint if you haven't read her stories they are worth your time. Her current story Nothing Worth Having is Easy is great and worth the read.

Second Big THANK YOU to my sister, Jonelle. Who is giving my stories a thorough technical analysis (ie deep proof reading) Thank you for fixing all my many, many little mistakes.

Ranger's Family Album

Mother's Mother – Abuela Rosa, Father's Mother – Abuela Sanja Manoso

Mother – Maria Father – Javier

Siblings and family in age order

Leyla (35) & Richard Gonzales– Rebecca (Becky) 12, Margaret (Maggie) 10, Richard (Ricky) 7, Michael (Mikie) 5

Angelia (34) & Jordan White – Shanna 5 – Kendrick (Ricky) 3

Ricardo Carlos Manoso (32)– Ranger

Julio Manoso (30) Ex Allysa – Jacob 2

Isabella (27) & Diego Diaz – Chris 8, Shylia 6, Parker 3

Oshanna Manoso (22)

Rachel & Ron – Julie 12, Fredrico (Freddie) 9, Cassandra (Cassie) 6

Trenton & Miami Merry Men Assignments (33 Men)

Abuela Sanja – Vince, Ian

Abuela Rosa – Manuel, Gavin

Maria – Erik, Francis

Leyla – Hal, Tony

Angelia – Woody, Dillion

Isabella – Cal, Red

Oshanna – Lester, Sport

Rachel – Eddie, Pace

Julie – Junior, Scott

Stephanie – Ranger, Marc, Tiger

Extra's – Bobby, Ram, Zero, Zip

Night's – Chet, Chester, Gino, Mario, Ryan, Ramon, Billy, Cade, Simon


	19. Chapter 19 California Dream

Chapter 19 California Dream

" _Do it and notify me as soon as you can verify passengers. Send me a list of all his businesses and what they are. I'll be back at the houses in thirty minutes I want aerial views of all his holdings so start searching for them." I disconnected as a plan was forming in my brain. I drove in my zone all the way back to the houses and spent the next three hours; after laughingly surviving an ambush by Mario, Ramon, Chester and Gino with loaded LSAT's, who I hadn't told I would be in the house, while I watched them to see how they would respond; searching through aerial photographs, figuring out where his active cocaine fields were._

 _I was going to burn him to the ground, blow up his mines, his planes, ships, destroy his businesses and ruin him before I torture and kill him. I would take him apart piece by piece and show all my enemies that if they threaten what's mine, nothing and nowhere is safe from me. I was sending a message that would ricochet around the world._

Skylar had texted me dinner reservations for my family for the next three nights and I forwarded the information on to them. I invited them to join me at Fogo de Chao, a Brazilian Steakhouse that had a private party room which could hold up to 100 people. I knew my mother could cook for us and I needed to talk to her about plans for meals the rest of the week. I wanted her to relax some too and not spend all her free time in the kitchen.

My men sent me updates of delays throughout the day. Specifically, that Oshanna and Angelia got 'turned around' on the boardwalk at the Santa Monica stop and the whole group was delayed thirty minutes, showing up with new sunglasses. Then again at the Hollywood sign they got 'lost' and they were delayed another twenty minutes, coming back each carrying a bag of souvenirs.

I hadn't given orders for the men to keep them on schedule, but Lester knew better, it was one reason why I assigned him to Oshanna because he knows how she is. Of course, Oshanna and Angelia together were a force even for my men to reckon with, and they were out in very public places where you couldn't just grab them and force them to go when and where you wanted them to go. After the second time the tour guide stuck with them, while flirting with Lester and Woody, and made sure they got back to the bus on schedule.

I spent my day looking at all the aerial photographs of Sergio's buildings and lands; getting the longitude and latitude of each and marking them all on countrywide maps. I said I was going to do this alone but now I realized I would need a team, and not a team of Rangemen. It wasn't that I didn't trust them completely, we protected and secured at RangeMan and this was a mission of destruction and revenge.

I wanted to hit him fast and hard. Four two-man teams could do the job. I started to put feelers out amongst international mercenaries. Men I had known and worked with, who would get great pleasure out of taking down this drug lord, but who had no ties to me or my business. Seeing who was available and wanted to help me do the job. Like me they were all opportunists and would do it for the money. But I also got their personal acknowledgements, their sworn word, pledges that they would keep this quiet for me.

Whoever went would need equipment and a way to get everything across international borders. I could take the Concorde but it would announce our arrival before we got there. Still it was fast and could carry all the men and equipment I required. I contacted Gunit, a private 'party' planner. If it shot, exploded or blew something up he could get it for you. Anything short of a drone or ground to air missiles he could get; and he could probably get you one of those as long as you didn't mind the Czech or Arabic instruction manual. If I gave him enough notice he could get me a plane too.

My family would be loaded on a week-long cruise this Saturday. I could return to the mainland, gather everyone and all the required equipment. Fly to Colombia and start dropping off teams. Give each team twenty-four hours to destroy everything and hit Sergio up Sunday night before he leaves Venezuela. It will be easier to take him out when he is off his major compound. At 14:00 my watch beeped and I started putting it all away.

When I arrived back at LA Tours there were still two and a half hours till our dinner reservations. I called the restaurant to verify our reservations and discuss seating. I explained that there were two groups all arriving together and that one group of twenty would be eating together and one group of twenty-seven would be eating together. I asked if they had long tables and requested two long tables with five men on each side set up near the doors and four round tables of eight for the families.

I requested eleven orders of spinach dip and empanadas; one for each round table and three each for the long tables; to be served at 6:05. I requested the buffet to be ready at 6:15, gave her my credit card information and told her part of the group would be there by 6:00 and the rest of the group would be coming shortly thereafter.

I was waiting in the LA Tours office when they trooped in, my men looking as alert as ever. Stephanie looked extremely happy, carrying a small bag; Julio, Oshanna and Angelia all with bags of stuff by their sides.

"Did you have fun Babe?" I asked her.

"Yes, so much fun. We got to go all over LA. I got two t-shirts and saw more big mansions than I knew could exist in one place. We got to see Halle Berry's, Tom Cruise's and Bruce Willis' Houses. We even got to see where Michael Jackson and Elvis use to live. But the Santa Monica pier was like Point Pleasant only twice as big and Oshanna and Julio have figured out places they want to go tomorrow night, well actually tonight after the Observatory. Well, they want to skip the observatory and go out tonight." She was chattering endlessly and I was enjoying getting all the dirt knowing she would run out in a few minutes.

I gathered everyone together. "We have a couple of hours before dinner. Is there any place special you want to go?"

"Madame Tussaud's Hollywood." Oshanna said as if she had been planning it. I inwardly rolled my eyes and cursed myself for coming so early to meet them.

"Wouldn't you rather go shopping somewhere?" I heard myself asking. "Or the Guinness World Records Museum?"

"No, I looked it up online, we can get our pictures with all our favorite celebrities and I got coupons for 50% off." She handed me twenty coupons and I smiled inside. My little sister could still be cute when she wasn't being a big pain in the ass. She was only five when I left for Miami, nine when I came back to go to college and was still sweet and cute when I left at twenty to go join the Army.

When I came back with a pregnant Rachel, she was starting to be a pain. Telling me that it was great I came home because now we could have a party, but she couldn't wait for me to leave again because I stress Mama and Papa out and make Mama cry. Mama would tell me how each of my siblings were doing when I called to say I was alive, reminding me how old everyone was and what grade they were in now.

Mama had tried to get me to come home for every major family event. If she could have she would have talked me into attending every High School graduation, Isabella's wedding, Easters, Christmases, and the births of Becky and Maggie, but the truth is that I wasn't that fourteen-year-old boy attached to his Mama anymore. I was a hardened soldier who had seen the ugliness of war and the dark side of humanity and didn't want my family to see it reflected back in me.

I know sending me away was a hard decision for my parents, they wanted to keep me away from the gangs and knew as long as I lived in Newark they would never leave me alone. But the separation had put a chasm in my relationships with my siblings and my parents that I didn't think I would ever be able to close up again.

"Everyone load up we're heading to Madame Tussaud's Hollywood." I told the group and took Stephanie's hand, leading her back to the SUVs. I beeped ours open and helped her inside handing the keys to Marc so he could drive.

Oshanna came up to me, "You never sent me a list of activities to do tonight but after that tour there are several places I want to go." She told me.

"Ok, send them to me and I will review them and get back to you."

"No, Carlos. We are safe here and I want to go experience some of the night life. Nobody knows where we are and I want to go to Tar and Roses and get one of their famous hamburgers and then go have drinks on the roof at The Penthouse." She frowned.

"If they found us on the island they could find us anywhere. I will check them out and get back to you." I explained.

She pouted at me. "Oshanna, I will let you do as much as possible but this trip is not just to have fun. This trip is all about getting you out of danger and keeping you safe and no matter what that is my top priority." She nodded to me, mumbled "Okay" and went and got into her SUV.

Three blocks away Woody, in the last SUV, sent a text of being followed by a dark blue Ford with two passengers and to take evasive action. Each SUV peeled off going in different directions, watching for the tail. Woody reported that the tail was still following them and they were having problems shaking it. I gave them directions to a large mall parking lot half a mile away and told them where to park.

I left Stephanie in the car with Tiger while Marc and I took positions up behind another parked SUV. Minutes later Dillon came into view and parked where I had told him too. The dark blue car was right behind them and pulled in two spaces down. I couldn't see what they had but it looked like both people pulled out something and was holding it up to the SUV.

With one hand motion to Marc we were crouched down moving to the car. I took the driver's side and in a split second had the door open, the occupant yanked out, spun around, and pressed her front to the car with her hand, holding a phone, pinned behind her back.

"What are you doing following us?" I demanded from the twenty something girl I had ripped out of the car.

"Nothing," she stammered, "nothing. We just wanted to get pictures." I spun her back around removing her phone from her hand and she was practically crying. "We didn't mean any harm. We saw all the men in black and knew you were guarding someone famous. We just wanted to get pictures." I looked at the last three pictures; deleting them as I went. She had captured Angelia coming around and getting into the SUV with Bobby and Woody.

"Let me see your ID." I demanded and she pointed to a tan purse in the floor by the center consol. I pushed her to the back of the car before opening the door all the way and ducking inside. I pulled out a green wallet and read her name. "Cassie, you're from Michigan. What are you doing here in LA?"

"Shannon and I just graduated from Michigan State. So we came on a vacation to see California before we had to hunker down and look for jobs."

I could see her Michigan State ID clearly in the wallet and sighed to myself. "Just because you see a security detail doesn't mean the person is famous. They could be drug dealers or the Mob. No matter what, no security detail is going to take to being followed. Next time they might just shoot you and walk away. So when you see a security detail you need to stay away, they will give their lives to protect their clients and will take yours if they think you are a threat. Do you understand me?" I gave her a hostile look and she shrank back in response. I handed her the wallet and signaled Marc to leave.

I walked over to Dillon who had been driving and he rolled down his window. "They were tourists from Michigan, wanting pictures. You need to retake offensive driving and Woody is to do all the driving from now on."

"Yes Sir." was his only reply. Then he got out and walked around the SUV.

I returned to our SUV with Marc, texting everyone that it was a false alarm just two tourists that wanted pictures of the big star we were supposedly protecting. This was one aspect of a large security detail in LA that I hadn't calculated in. People mobbing us or following us because they think we are protecting someone famous.

We finally got to Madame Tussaud's Hollywood a few blocks later and all went inside. I led the way with Stephanie, Tiger and Marc taking pictures of her with many famous people. Lady Gaga, Forest Gump, Audrey Hepburn and all the Marvel comic characters where she posed giving Thor a kiss on his cheek. Guess I know where he stands in her fantasy lineup, and what I have to live up to. There was nothing I could do about the blonde hair but I was pretty sure I could work with the hammer.

I tried to pretend I didn't see my men taking pictures for Oshanna and Angelia and several of them posing with some famous people themselves, mainly Lady Gaga, Marilyn Monroe and Selena Quintanilla. I even managed to pretend like I didn't notice Lester posing in compromising positions with each woman. We were basically safe in here, nowhere for the bad guys to hide. I could let slide a little fun admitting I could whip them into shape at a moment's notice and knowing the minds of a soldier: a little bit of fun here and there relieves the constant stress of a long protection detail.

At 17:30 I signaled for the team to wrap it up and return to the vehicles. We got to Fogo de Chao at five minutes till six and were led into a side banquet room. I instructed my men to sit at the long tables and told them appetizers were already ordered. Our waiter came in bringing water pitchers and filling glasses for every seat at every table. I ordered several bottles of wine but let the servers know the adults could order any drinks they liked.

I texted Erik for the ETA of their group and almost immediately got a text that they were en route, approximately ten minutes out. Servers came out in waves with large trays and brought the food out filling a lavish buffet. Dinner went well once the food started coming and the family started lining up along the front of the buffet. They especially enjoyed the two servers carving fresh meat for them as they went through the lines. It only took fifteen minutes before everyone was seated again with a meal in front of them.

Everyone proclaimed the food to be wonderful and people who liked spicy foods declared it mouth burningly great. The wine flowed freely amongst my family and since no one was driving I let it. I asked for the check and Stephanie pouted when she realized she wasn't getting any dessert. "Too many people Babe, and too many kids. We have an eight o'clock appointment at the observatory, there is not enough time for them to make fifty desserts. But hang in there and we will stop at a bakery or store on the way home and get you something."

"But I saw something here that I've never had before." She explained. I called the head waitress back over and put in Stephanie's order to go and gave her my credit card. Stephanie is mostly easy going and easy to please. But she is high maintenance when it comes to her food, specifically her desserts. Ten minutes later the waitress returned with a small white paper bag, my card, and the receipt.

I stood up. "I hope everyone had a nice dinner. We have eight o'clock reservations at the Griffith Observatory. If everyone would get to their SUV it's time to go." I informed my family.

Everyone began standing, collecting up their things, finishing glasses of wine while my men lined up on both sides of the door to wait for their charges. I got Stephanie and led her over to the table with my men. I nodded to Marc and Tiger and we headed out. I wanted everyone and everything to run with military precision, but I knew some of my family tended to dawdle and I wasn't going to be late just because they couldn't get up and leave on time.

The rest of the night went smoothly. Everyone made the tour, even though Lester informed me that Oshanna and Julio tried to talk them into going out for drinks. We learned about our sun, the stars we can see and the planets in our galaxy, saw a movie about the formation of the universe, earth, the stars and the thousands of galaxies we know of. It was very informative and at 9:30 many of the kids were up way past their bedtimes so we loaded up to head back to the houses.

Two blocks away I got a text that Julio had called an Uber and Oshanna wanted to go out with him. I texted them that Julio can do what he wants but Oshanna had to come back to the houses with the rest of the family. Minutes later my phone was blowing up with my sister's name on the screen. I answered my phone.

"What?"

"I want to go with Julio. You said we could go out." Oshanna whined at me.

"Julio is not in any danger. He can go where he pleases. You are coming home tonight. I told you I would take you out but I am going to check out the places first and we will have a full security detail when we go."

"But Carlos" she started to whine louder and I hung up my phone. It started blowing up again moments later but I just sent it to voicemail. Her guards would get her home and I didn't care what Julio did but I sent him a quick text.

' _You can do what you like but you can't endanger the women. Oshanna can't go tonight. I will take her out another night."_

' _Chill Bro. Just going for a few drinks."_

' _If you go you are gone for the night. No coming back to the houses. Only my men can drive you to and from the safe houses."_ To this text I did not receive a reply. That little _puta_ better not find a date and try to bring her back to the houses, I will string him up a pole. Certainly, he will want more privacy and will take them somewhere else, I'm almost sure of it. _(bitch)_

Once we got home I led Stephanie in the house, past Chester who was waiting for us in the kitchen and up to our room. Before she headed into the shower I gave her the box with the pink negligee and she looked at it dubiously.

"Babe, I know you only feel comfortable sleeping in something and I want to give you something sexy and soft to sleep in. It even comes with a robe, open it." I encouraged.

She slowly unwrapped the box and lifted the soft pink creation up out of the tissue paper. "Put it on after our shower." I encouraged and she laid it back into the box. After our shower, I got dried fast, brushed my teeth and climbed on top of the covers in all my glory so I could watch her put on the negligee and she could watch me react. She came out of the bathroom shyly, still not use to being naked in front of me, wrapped tightly in a towel after using another one to mostly dry her hair.

She picked up the box and disappeared back into the bathroom coming out a few minutes later with the thigh high robe tied tightly around her. I didn't say anything to her as she walked around the room getting her toiletries bag. She left the bathroom door open as she removed her make-up, applied moisturizer, brushed, flossed, brushed her mostly dry hair and I got harder as I watched her in the bathroom, the hem repeatedly riding up her thighs every time she leaned in to look at herself closely in the mirror.

I had gotten her off in the shower but I waited, wanting to see and feel her next to my erection. Damn, it was becoming painful just thinking about it. She came out of the bathroom and blushed as she looked at me realizing I was in a state.

"Babe."

"Carlos," she looked over at me as she put her bag away. "Waiting for something?" She smirked.

"Just watching. I like that on you." I told her as I waved to my very tall erection.

"Oooo, looks painful. Like you need to do something about that."

"Come closer," I quirked my finger at her. "I know the cure."

"Oh no, I know your cure and if you think I'm getting anywhere near that thing you're dreaming. Where are my sweats?" she teased as she bent over to pick her pre-shower clothes up off the floor.

In a flash, I was up behind her, spinning her around and knocking the clothes back to the floor, I took her into my arms, and reached for her lips with mine. She relaxed into my arms and kissed me back enthusiastically as I kissed her senseless. In a moment, I had the robe off and was walking her backwards towards the bed, my full erection under her nightie pressing against the silk and lace scrap of underwear.

I picked her up and laid her out on the bed as she smiled widely at me. I knew she had been traipsing around the room to tease me but I didn't want to wait any longer to be inside her. I laid down on her pinning her in place and she grunted quietly under my weight. I kissed her and kissed her; feeling her wiggle and squirm against me as I held her underneath me.

I finally released her mouth and moved down kissing behind her ear, down the left side of her neck to the tiny strap of the dress. I kissed her there and then worked both straps down to expose her. I licked and kissed my way as I exposed her skin, down to her tight perky breasts and placed tender kisses on them, taking each nipple into my mouth and sucking on it greedily, while listening to her moans and cries.

I lifted my head up to watch her wide eyes watching me as I lifted her up and pulled the silk and lace negligee off. Then I moved down her body, kissing every inch and dipping my tongue into her belly button before I kissed all over her belly, slowly making my way down to the promised land. When I finally settled myself between her legs, I carefully peeled her panties off, knowing she wouldn't want me to rip them the first time. I breathed heavily on her core, then took a tentative lick or two.

"Ranger" she demanded, reaching down with her hands to guide me. I caught her hands and put them on either side of her knowing I was going to take this at my own speed. Finally, I delved between her legs and her nub, still tender from my ministrations in the shower, pulled away. I kissed around it in a circle and licked at her lips warming her back up, then I dove into her hole licking and sucking at it and stroking it.

Her cries changed getting deeper. "Carlos." She cried and I moved back up to her nub working it with my tongue around and around, then stabbing at it; her hands claimed the back of my head as she arched her hips up towards my mouth. I started suckling at it gently, sliding two fingers into her and stroking her up higher and higher till she arched off the bed crying out, tensing up underneath me. I licked her juices up as always and spread out next to her as she lay their unfocused and relaxed.

"Babe" I told her as I took her in my arms and pulled her to me kissing her deeply. I needed her but I wanted to see her on top of me. I kissed her for long moments and then rolled onto my back pulling her on top of me. She straddled my stomach sitting back and smiled down at me. She laid on top of me kissing me again. Finally, she sat up and slid down till my cock was standing up hard pressed between her butt cheeks. I needed her, ached to be inside her and tonight I wanted her to ride me. I wanted to feel her thighs tighten around me as she worked herself up and down on me.

We had done this in Hawaii several times. First on the big bed where she aggressively climbed on top and rode me till she collapsed. Once again on the beach, in an attempt to avoid getting sand in her hair. It was this second time with her hand placed firmly on my chest that she went up and down and up and down, the sun blazing behind her, until she clutched my chest and my dick as she convulsed around me. Even as I knew she would regret it I had quickly laid her out on the warm sand and was instantly back inside her. Finally, the infamous hot tub ride where she was so worn out she had collapsed on me and I had to carry her and lie her barely conscious form on the bed.

Now I waited patiently till she lifted herself up and slid down my unadorned dick. Fuck I had forgotten protection and I sure as hell wasn't going to stop her now as she went up and down repeatedly, clutching at my chest as she lifted and balanced herself, driving herself back down on top of me. My hands on each of her hips lifting her up and driving her back down, I enjoyed her riding me for several long moments, passion and determination on her beautiful face.

I could feel her building as she tightened around me and worked harder going up and down on top of me. Finally, she cried out and convulsed around my rock-hard dick and while I wanted to join her I wasn't quite there and I wasn't going to cum inside her unprotected. As much as I enjoyed her being on top she never lasted long enough for me to get there. I smoothly flipped us over and withdrew, leaning over to get a condom out of the night stand drawer and slid it on, her heavy, passion hooded eyes widened as she realized she had been riding me bare.

Now protected I plunged inside her still trembling core and started kissing her to bring her back around. Slowly she relaxed around me and I began to move. I needed her, to have her, to claim her and I slowly quickened my pace till I was driving into her almost wildly. _Dios_ , I needed her more than air, needed to be one with her, needed to reaffirm that she was okay after a day away and that she was mine.

I drove into her over and over until her hands tightened on my arms, her legs clenched and she cried out, convulsing around me again. I pounded into her following her over the top, until I couldn't breathe and my body spurted over and over. I felt like we had joined as one and I slid down, resting across her body, burying my face into her neck and breathing her in deeply, my arms wrapping around her holding her to me.

Several minutes later she tapped my side and I lifted up off her. I discarded the condom and pulled her to lay on me, she wrapped her arm across my chest and threw her leg over mine. I was going to make her safe. I was going to leave a message that even to breathe a threat against her would bring about your destruction.

At 0347 my phone was blowing up; lit up and vibrating across the night stand. I grabbed it and answered it. "Talk."

"Sir, Julio is here with his date at the gate. We've told him he can't come in but he's drunk and he's out here yelling." I was getting dressed the minute he said Julio.

"Keep him there, open the gate so he'll stop yelling, but keep him there don't let him past the gate." I was running out the door, barefoot with my Glock in hand ready to beat some sense into my brother. I knew that he was going to cause problems; it had flitted through my thoughts when he first went out. But truly I hadn't actually expected this! Why would he come back to the houses when he could just get a nice hotel room in the city? It didn't make sense to me.

I ran out to the front gate of the first house and signaled my men to open the gate. I marched over to the gate of the second house where my men stood, LSATs in hand, blocking his entrance onto the property while he argued with them.

"Julio!" I barked as I came up from behind him and laughed as he jumped.

"Carlos, meet my friend Julia. We were going for a walk on the beach." He slurred to me.

"Julio, what did I tell you?"

"That I could go do whatever I wanted." He smugly answered back to me.

"And I texted you that you could not come back to the houses. That only my men can drive anyone to and from the houses. If someone was following you they could have followed your taxi straight here."

"Uber"

"Whatever the fuck it was, doesn't matter. You chose to leave the group you can't come back tonight I told you that."

"But I just paid for a forty-five-minute drive to come back here." He whined.

"And you should have put that money towards a hotel room because you don't get to come back here tonight."

"But we are already here." He said smugly.

"And you can't stay and you certainly can't bring anybody else here."

"Why not? She's no threat. She's not after my sisters." He insisted.

"Yeah, you can't keep him out just because you are his older bossy brother, besides where will he go for protection?" Julia said pointing to my chest even though she stood three feet away behind my brother.

I got in Julio's face. "I can keep you out because I'm older, bigger, and this is my party. These are my men they do what I say. I'm paying for this trip, I say who gets to go. I'm paying for these houses, I say who stays in them. I'm paying for the plane, I say who flies on it. As of right now you are out of the group. If you can't follow the simple rules I lay down, you can't stay on this trip with the family. I will have my men drive you where ever you want and you can find your own way back to Trenton."

"Bro, you can't do that to me. Mama said I could come-"

"But you agreed to follow the rules and you broke that agreement. You broke that trust so you are out."

"Caaarrrllooosss," he practically yelled, "you can't do this to me! I'm calling Mama right now." He lifted up his phone and started to scroll through it and I snatched it out of his hands.

"I gave you that phone, I'm taking it back NOW! Ryan."

"Yes Sir," He answered.

"Get an SUV and escort my brother anywhere he wants to go within an hour of here."

"I've got to get my stuff."

"Go buy new stuff, you have a credit card with a $1000 limit. You can get a hotel room, get clothes, and fly your ass home if you spend it wisely."

"But I need my razor, my toothbrush, my luggage."

"Buy whatever you need. If you fly back in the morning you can get away with a toothbrush and a change of clothes." If he'd ever been in the army he could do without the clothes.

"But I spent a bunch of money today on souvenirs, I don't have that much left."

"Fine, I'll raise your limit to $2000. That should get you home no problem." As I spoke, Ryan pulled up in a black Suburban with his window down waiting for instructions.

"Can I at least have my phone back?"

"No."

"Come on Carlos, how can I make hotel reservations?"

"Make them when you get there."

"But how can I find a hotel to tell him where to go?"

"Ryan has a phone he can find you a nice hotel on the beach."

"How can I make plane reservations without my laptop or phone."

"I'll have my men pack up your room and we will drop it off to you in the morning."

"But you took my phone in Jersey."

"Call me with your flight info." I pulled out a business card that had my handwritten new number on it. "I will have a man in Newark with your phone and debit cards. He will give you a ride where ever you want and collect your ID and credit card from you."

"Man, you're being cold Bro."

"No, I am keeping your family safe. Something you are not willing to do. If I was cold I would just drop you off in a third world country and wish you good luck."

"Fine," He huffed, "but I'm still telling mom and she is going to be mad at you."

I gave him my blank face and told Ryan to take them to a nice hotel on the beach. Make sure he can get a room for the night and leave him there.

Wednesday 05:30

My watch alarm beeped me awake and I got dressed to go for a run on the beach. Forty minutes later I stripped down to my shorts and did kata, a practiced set of movements in free-flowing forms for thirty minutes. Then I went upstairs to shower and got dressed for the day.

The girls' tour today wasn't starting till 09:00 so Steph had a little more time to sleep in as the meet up location for it wasn't as far away. At 07:00 I went downstairs to address my men. Unfortunately, there were only five of them in the kitchen area. Three that were cooking and two that were sitting at the table waiting. I sent a text instead. Meeting at 07:40 in the kitchen of the third house.

I jogged back upstairs to wake Stephanie up. I started kissing her lightly on her lips like sleeping beauty but she just slept through that. Then I tried peppering her face with kisses, but she just turned her face away from me. I started kissing down her neck. I knew I could just talk her awake or shake her awake but I wanted to see if I could kiss her awake.

After I kissed all the way down her neck and got to her shoulder I saw that something more dramatic was needed to wake this sleeping princess. I got on her pulse point and started mouthing it, and sucking on it and gently biting it and she started to stir. Then her arm came up to bat me away and as soon as it hit my chest, she startled awake and turned her head to see me.

"Oooh, sorry. What were you doing?" She questioned.

"Trying to wake you up with kisses but you don't wake that easily." I explained and then I quickly kissed her on her lips before she could turn away knowing she avoids mouth kissing till she has brushed her teeth. I pulled up my laptop while she got in the shower and started working through some of Sergio's financials that Hector had sent.

At 07:30 we went downstairs to see what was being cooked for breakfast. Mama and Leyla were at the stove cooking a bunch of eggs and pancakes with four pans all going at the same time. Stephanie took a stack of pancakes and after sitting down started slathering them in butter and syrup, while I made my plate of eggs and cut up fruit with another yogurt from the fridge. I made a second plate for her of eggs and a few slices of fruit off of the platter Abuela Rosa had been preparing.

I put my plate down next to her and set the second plate down in front of her. Now how to do this nicely with finesse that will have her accepting this from me? _I noticed you didn't get any fruit or protein._ Nope. _You seemed to have missed the fruit platter and I got you some eggs._ Nope. _Babe don't you want something more nutritious than straight carbs with fat and sugar for breakfast?_ Triple hell no. In the end I said nothing.

I looked at my watch. "Babe I've got to go talk to my men, can you save my seat?" She just looked at me with a full mouth and nodded. I smiled back at her chipmunk impression and kissed her on the top of her head.

At 07:40 I addressed my men. "For anyone that doesn't know, Julio decided that he wanted to go out last night. I gave him permission to go, but told Oshanna she had to come back to here. I explicitly told Julio that if he went out he was not to come back. Honestly, I didn't think he knew the address but this morning he showed up at the gate with a girl, hollering to get in. I kicked him out, took his phone and had Ryan drive him to a motel. Zip and Zero I need you to pack up his room, specifically his laptop and take it all to him. He is flying home, or doing whatever he wants to do but he is not coming back on this trip with us. On a different note, I am taking Oshanna and Stephanie out on the town tonight. I don't know for certain where we are going. I'm still working on the details with my travel agent, anyone that wants to come as part of the protection detail text me today. Dismissed."

I went back to Stephanie and was pleased to see she had taken a couple bites of eggs and ate half of the fruit I got for her. I sat down and started eating. Just as I was finishing Oshanna came flying into the kitchen to cry at Mama. She wasn't actually crying but it was high pitched and very close. She looked back at me over her shoulder then she grabbed Mama's arm and started dragging her out of the kitchen with her left hand, her right hand firmly clutching her phone.

Damn, I didn't know how but I knew Julio had gotten hold of her and was starting trouble. I didn't want to wait for it to come to me. I excused myself from the table and followed them out of the dining room and found them in the library. I just leaned my right shoulder against the doorway, crossed my arms and listened. As soon as I walked in Oshanna stopped talking, but Mama was talking in rapid Spanish on the phone, listening raptly and then talking briefly again. I just waited until she was done. Several minutes later she took her ear from the phone and turned on me.

"Carlos, you told your brother that he could go out. But when he came back home, you wouldn't let him on the property, took his phone and told him he was off this trip?" At least she phrased it as a question, knowing from years of experience that Julio would tell the story from a slanted point of view.

"Mama, I told him he could go out and I only gave him one rule: that he couldn't come back last night. My men have to drive everybody to and from these houses, that's the only way to keep our location safe and secure. He came home in the middle of the night by Uber, with an unknown female companion."

"He says that no one told him he couldn't bring anyone back with him."

"He wasn't supposed to come back last night at all, much less bring some random girl back with him. He said before we left he would follow the rules I laid down, but he didn't. That's two separate unsecured people who now know the location of these safe houses. If I let him keep it up how many more people would know by the end of the week? We only got to stay on the island for two nights before we were found. How quickly will they find us if Julio's running around bringing anyone here? Or coming here in an unsecured vehicle that anyone can follow? Mama these houses only stay safe if nobody knows where we are. Everyone that Julio brings here increases our exposure and the likelihood of being discovered."

"But Carlos he said he didn't get that text, he says he only got the first one where you told him he could go out."

"Mama they were sent within minutes of each other. If he got one he got the other."

"But he said he never saw it." She explained.

"Mama those phones are our lines of communications. It is everybody's job to keep them close and keep up with what is happening to the family. Especially if they are going out and going to be away from the group."

"I think we need to go ask your father."

"Mom, this is my trip. I am doing this to keep the women in my life safe, not take my brother out to party. Notice I didn't try to curb his fun or say he couldn't go. I only told him he couldn't come back last night. He has a credit card on him that I'm paying for so he could get a hotel room. Besides if he was planning to pick up a random woman why bring her back to the family? I would have thought he would want to take her to a private hotel room."

"Mi'jo, he says he's sorry, that he didn't know."

"That's a load of crap Mama. I think half the reason he came back last night was because I told him he couldn't."

"No, he said he wanted to take her on a walk on the beach and then get romantic." She insisted. I didn't see it last night because I was too mad. There are miles of beach around, yet he drove her 45 minutes to this beach. He wanted a beach that showed big men in black with machine guns. I'm betting he told her his life was in danger too.

"Mama, let's just get Papa. I will get Julio's phone and we will see." As much as it aggravated me, Mama will usually side with Julio, but maybe in the face of his phone and Papa's logic, sanity will prevail and I will be free of that _joda_. Five minutes I was back downstairs with his phone, but with texts, unlike emails, there is no proof that they have been read. _(pain in the ass)_

"Papa, Mama, Oshanna," I addressed them all, "Julio proved last night that he doesn't care about the women in this family staying safe and he won't follow the rules I lay down. He brought two people to the safe houses last night after being told specifically to stay out all night and not come back. As a result, I have kicked him out of this group and sent him back home. Questions?"

"Carlos, what is at issue is that he says he never saw your text." Papa explained.

"Papa I have his phone right here, I sent him the first text at 9:17 and he responded and I immediately sent him the second text at 9:18. There is no way he didn't have his phone right there in his hand and see the second text."

"But he was on the phone with me I called him right after your first text and he never saw the second text," Oshanna announced. I scrolled through his incoming calls and sure enough there was one at 9:18 from Oshanna's phone.

"There is no way you can convince me he was gone for six hours and never looked at his phone again." I told the group.

"Carlos, it's not fair to cancel his vacation after one mistake, especially if he didn't know he's making it." Mama said.

"Mama, I'm not cancelling anything. I gave him more money and he can stay here in California and party all he wants. In fact, I'll give him even more money and pay for his hotel room and a flight home next week so he can stay in California till this is over. But I can't have him here endangering the family. This is not a vacation. This is a traveling safe house where I am providing entertainment to maintain everyone's sanity and make this as easy as possible. I allowed him to come and have paid his way even though he is not being threatened."

"But he wants to spend time with us. He wants to spend time with the family." Mama insisted.

"I want to believe that but he said it himself when we were picking the place, the babes and the bars are the best here. Now he can go and party as much as he likes, which is what he wants to do anyway. Besides if he wanted to spend time with the family he would not be going out picking up girls, he would have come back with us last night."

"No that's not true, he may want to party a little, but he really wants to be with the family. Now he knows better he won't endanger us again." Mama said. There was going to be no convincing her. Personally, I bet if I had made my hotel and flight deal directly to Julio he would have taken it. But I had taken his phone away and didn't even know what hotel Ryan took him to.

"Get Julio back on the line and let me talk to him directly." I said. Oshanna took her phone from Mama and pushed a few buttons.

"Hey. Yeah, we're still talking about it." She said into her phone. "Well he wants to talk to you." And then she put it on speaker phone and handed her phone to me.

"Julio look, you wanted to come to California for the bars and the babes. I'll make a deal with you. I'll pay for your hotel room till a week Friday and your flight home. That way you can have your vacation and not endanger the family."

"But I came on this vacation to be with the family." He whined at me. "I might want to have a little fun at night too but I want to spend my days with the family and I know you're not staying in LA for the next two weeks. I know you're going to be going other places and I want to go too. I want to stay with the family."

"But Julio I can't trust you to keep Mama or your sisters safe." Not to mention Julie and Stephanie. "These are supposed to be safe houses, but the only thing that makes them safe is if no one knows where they are and you brought two different people here last night and told who knows how many other people about the family and the situation."

"No Bro, I didn't tell anyone anything, just that I am out here on vacation."

"You told that girl last night, Julia, something because she said something about you needing protection." I insisted.

"Well, I might have told her I was staying somewhere that had armed guards for safety."

"and for some reason she seemed to think you needed protection too."

"Well of course if there are armed guards they are here to protect me too."

"If the family is attacked the guards will protect everyone, but no one is watching your back here. You've got to be on guard for yourself. Making sure no one is following you back to the family."

"I can do that. I'm on my guard watching all the time. I know they only threatened the women in the family but I have to be realistic. If they can't get any of them they could come after me and hurt me." Not that I could discount this, but I think they would use him to find us more than hurt him directly. Mentally I had my hand between my eyes, pinching my nose and squinting in aggravation.

"Fine, here's the deal. You spend your nights away from the family. You are never to come back to the safe houses again. When you meet up with the family it will be at special rendezvous points and you can't have any contact with the family for 20 minutes after you arrive to make sure you have not been followed. You stick with the group during the day but you go back to your hotel room at night. You tell no one you are here with your family. You are here on vacation by yourself. You know nobody else out here."

"Ok sure that sounds great, I can do that."

"Fine give me your hotel info and I will send someone over with your things."

All I wanted to do was strangle him, but if I could pay to keep him away from the family or at least the safe houses I would do it.

"Do you mind if I go see my son today? It's only like an hour and a half by transit to San Bernadino. I can't be this close to him and not visit."

"Sure but rent a car, it will be easier than taking the transit."

"Thanks Bro." and I disconnected the call. At least he would be away from the family today, and we would see about the rest of the week. I handed the phone back to Oshanna and started to walk out of the room but my mama was on her feet hugging me.

"I know he is a trial for you _me'jo_ , but you did the right thing. As much as he drives you _loco_ he is your brother. We want to stay together as a family through all of this."

"I know Mama." I told her as I hugged her back. I did it for her so she wouldn't get mad at me and drive me crazy on the rest of this trip. Whatever happens, I just have to make sure he doesn't put the family in danger again.

To Be Continued…

A/N: Thank you all for your reviews! They feed the muse! 😊 My work schedule has changed so I am going to start posting on Friday's instead of Mondays. The writing is going pretty well so there may be a few more bonus chapters posted here and there.

Oh, their first full day in LA and already Julio is causing problems. Did Ranger do the right thing trying to separate him from the family? Let me know what you think. Please read and review.

As always Big THANK YOU to my beta Sassysaint who add so much to my stories! 😊

Second Big THANK YOU to my sister, Jonelle. Who is giving my stories a thorough technical analysis (ie deep proof reading). Thank you for fixing all my many little mistakes.

Trenton & Miami Merry Men Assignments (33 Men)

Abuela Sanja – Vince, Ian

Abuela Rosa – Manuel, Gavin

Maria – Erik, Francis

Leyla – Hal, Tony

Angelia – Woody, Dillion

Isabella – Cal, Red

Oshanna – Lester, Sport

Rachel – Eddie, Pace

Julie – Junior, Scott

Stephanie – Ranger, Marc, Tiger

Extra's – Bobby, Ram, Zero, Zip

Night's – Chet, Chester, Gino, Mario, Ryan, Ramon, Billy, Cade, Simon


	20. Chapter 20 Having Fun in LA

Chapter 20 having Fun in LA

 _All I wanted to do was strangle him, but if I could pay to keep him away from the family or at least the safe houses I would do it._

" _Do you mind if I go see my son today? It's only like an hour and a half by transit to San Bernadino. I can't be this close to him and not visit."_

" _Sure, but rent a car it will be easier than taking the transit."_

" _Thanks Bro." and I disconnected the call. At least he would be away from the family today, and we would see about the rest of the week. I handed the phone back to Oshanna and started to walk out of the room but my mama was on her feet hugging me._

" _I know he is a trial for you me'jo, but you did the right thing. As much as he drives you loco he is your brother. We want to stay together as a family through all of this."_

" _I know mama." I told her as I hugged her back. I did it for her so she wouldn't get mad at me and drive me crazy on the rest of this trip. Whatever happens, I just have to make sure he doesn't put the family in danger again._

Wednesday May 20 08:00

At 08:00 I said goodbye to Stephanie and my family and got to work. I spent the day setting up a back-channel line for everyone to contact through and finalized the recruiting I had started yesterday. I studied more satellite images, downloaded all the business addresses and all property, buildings, planes, trucks, boats, ships and lands owned by them. I discovered all of his cocaine fields were located in the middle of his coffee plantations. Everywhere there were more than two acres of plants the middle was all cocaine.

Tank called me half way through the day. "I'm going."

"I'm not involving anyone from RangeMan."

"I've known you longer than you've had RangeMan. I am your friend, your brother in arms, we've been through hell together and an attack on you and your women is an attack on me. You're not doing this without me. Besides I know all the motherfuckers you've recruited to do this and I will call them all up and tell them to stand down until I'm involved. You're not going to go have all this fun without me."

I sighed internally. Tank was always a good man to have on your side and a very bad man to piss off. Sure, I could call up other men I know and try to leave him out of it, but I would still have to deal with him when I got back to RangeMan and as big as his heart is, his grudges were ten times bigger. He could make things miserable for me for years to come.

"Fine, but no one else. This is off the books. We are all ghosts on this one."

"Done."

"Meet up is Saturday 15:00 at Cable Airport in Upton. Warehouse 38. This is a full extermination exercise. We are going to take him apart."

"I'll bring a few friends."

"I already have eight guys. In forty-eight hours that should be enough."

"Come on, they want to come play too. There just aren't many opportunities to blow stuff up any more, I can't deny them."

"Fine. Pay is half a million to be paid two weeks after completing the operation."

"You don't have to pay them. They will come just for the fun of it."

"Still everyone signs a contract and everyone gets paid. This is technically a week-long private security detail in Palmsdale for unnamed celebrities."

"I'll bring the party favors."

"Actually, I have a party planner meeting us at 14:30, we need a lot more than small party favors. I'm bringing big guns. We are going to blow shit up spectacularly! If he owns it or makes money using it it's going up or being burned to the ground. Complete dissolution of everything."

"and you were going to leave me out of this." Tank scoffed.

"It's always CYA, nothing personal. Speaking of personal, have Hector hack and scrub all his accounts. I want to know where every dime he has is and where it is coming from. I don't want to miss anything." (Cover Your Ass)

"Done." He laughed to himself. "You're going to bleed him dry."

"I'm going to send a message that if you threaten what is mine, I will take or destroy everything you have. I have to make it too destructive, too expensive, and too deadly for anyone to come after Stephanie or my family ever again." My family might worry about what I am spending on this little vacation but it is nothing compared to the millions I am going to take Sergio for.

"I'll have Hector email you." And Tank disconnected.

By 16:00 I started packing away all of my maps and notes. Bones had done a great job researching every company owned by or affiliated with Sergio. He had a detailed diagram of all one hundred seventy two different businesses linked to him and showed how they were interwoven. He was the direct president or CEO of seven. Those seven owned eleven separate companies run by family and close associates. Those eleven each owned two or three separate companies, except in the case of the coffee conglomerate. Each coffee field, and separate production plant was owned by a different company with additional companies that were affiliated.

We had located twenty-five cocaine/coffee fields and twenty-nine warehouses and processing plants used to process the goods and each were owned by separate companies. There were ten more companies owned that were affiliated with the coffee fields but I wasn't sure what each did. However it was much more complicated than that. First each field, warehouse or plant was owned by a holding company that did nothing but own the property and any equipment on it and rent them out to another company that actually used the properties and paid all the labor. All these companies were managed by three management companies that were all run by two other companies, who were then owned and run by Sergio. Just his coffee fields and production plants were one hundred and twenty-three different companies.

The six trucking hubs and offices where his semis and trailers were stored were five different companies. Attached to this shipping conglomerate were two more companies that own and run the six cargo planes used to fly things out of the country. Five separate companies handle the twelve cargo ships, the shipping containers and what's inside them, and three separate companies manage the Uranium mine, the processing plant and the shipping of the caked uranium. Four more companies handled all the small fishing boats, the refrigerated trucks that delivered their daily catches, and the wholesale side of the business.

He had two companies where all they did was buy products to ship out of the country. The first bought items shipped to other South American countries and was split into two divisions. The second bought items being shipped internationally to North America and to every nation being shipped uranium, it was also split into two divisions.

He had several regular shipping routes through the country South America and six trucking hubs where most of his trucks and shipping containers were housed. Several airports were regularly used, but there was one main one near his Southern compound that often housed all eight of his airplanes.

We had located ten corporate offices that each housed a separate corporation. One at the main port most of his cargo ships sailed from. The second, for the emerald mine, was also attached to a jewelry store that he did a lot of business with. The third office managed selling emeralds to the jewelry store and buying crafted jewelry back then shipping it to stores around the world. The forth was a corporate office for his trucking and shipping company. The fifth handled the government shipping contracts.

The sixth was a corporate office for the coffee business that had smaller offices many under separate business names at each production plant. The seventh was an office for the company that bought local goods to sell internationally. The eighth was an office for the company that bought everything to be sold throughout South America. The ninth office was located on the same site as his plutonium mine but had a separate address and was registered to the same shipping company that managed his cargo ships.

The tenth office handled the four businesses that made up the local fishing conglomerate. There was an eleventh business that owned and managed all five of his compounds and seventeen properties, but it didn't have a public corporate office. One hundred fifty three businesses ran their products and money through these main eleven corporations and he owned the companies that owned these eleven businesses.

He could be anywhere. The eleventh corporation owned and managed twenty three different properties. Three main compounds in Colombia; his southern compound, a western compound, and an eastern compound. All three compounds had high walls and lots of security. The house in Venezuela and the family compound in Panama. Plus, there were seventeen other houses listed to his business that might be for his higher up employees or associates. In some of the information he used the alias Boris Hernandez as the president of several smaller businesses. So, Boris may not even be the real name of the guy in the US after the women.

I had drawn out plans to burn down all twenty-five fields. Blow up all twenty nine production plants. Blow up and burn down the trucking hubs and all the trucks and trailers we can find. Blow up all of his planes. Blow up and burn down all twenty three properties. I started considering having my lawyer draw up transfer of ownership contracts for several assets including the mines, the fishing group and and his shipping companies. Blowing up all his shipping freighters would be a problem. If we did it when they were out to sea it would kill everyone on board. Better to do it in port, but only three of them were in a Colombia port right now and they would probably be gone by the weekend. Not to mention blowing up a ship in port causes all kinds of other problems. Better to just blow up the shipping containers we can reach and transfer ownership of the ships.

More crippling would be to have him sign over his businesses and take all his money so he has nothing left. If I just take everything from him and he turns up dead, no one will think I took them legally. So maybe for the short term I need to leave him alive until I have transferred all of his businesses into my name. Threaten him and his entire family, like he has threatened mine.

….

Stephanie came home from the tour elated with five new outfits and three pairs of shoes. She had a killer red dress and shoes that I insisted she try on for me and I told her to wear them for dinner and that afterwards we were going out. I tried to get her to wear it with no underwear on underneath but she patently refused.

We had an hour before we had to leave to meet up with the family for dinner. Tonight, Skylar had made reservations at Badmaash, an Indian restaurant. I enjoy Indian food and as it can be made quite spicy and flavorful I hoped my family would love it too. My only concern was the children. Fortunately when we arrived they had their own children's menu with mac-n-cheese, grilled cheese and chicken tenders that everyone was happy with. They didn't have a back room; rather multiple tables in the back of the restaurant had been put side by side to seat everyone.

I had the 'Badass Chicken Tikka', which Stephanie teased was only because it was called badass. She ordered the fried chicken, and I had to laugh and grimace at the same time that we could come to a restaurant this healthy and she picks the one fried option. As dinner was winding down she leaned over my ear and whispered "Kakaju barfi".

I looked questioningly at her. "Kwaiji barfa" she whispered again.

"My dessert for tonight. I'm probably saying it wrong. K-a-j-u B-a-r-f-i." She spelled it for me. I smiled at her and signaled the waiter over. I let him know I wanted two orders of Kaju Ki Barfi wrapped to go with a fork and the bill.

When it was time to go, we split up the caravan differently. Stephanie and me, my parents and Oshanna with an entourage of 10 men were going to the Laugh Factory for the evening and then Oshanna and Stephanie out to The Conga Room. The Laugh Factory was quite funny. Even though the tables only sat four my parents pulled up an extra chair and we had a relaxing evening hanging out and laughing. With three tables of large men in black surrounding us. I didn't recognize any of the talent but they were all good.

When it was time to go my mama hugged me, kissed me and thanked me for the good night out on the town. Oshanna, in more of a partying mood after several drinks, rode in our SUV quoting some of the jokes she found funniest. I had been pleased that Stephanie had stuck to soda the entire night, knowing it was too early for her to start drinking.

"When a man opens the car door for his wife, you can be sure of one thing, either the car is new or the wife is." Oshanna quoted laughing out loud.

"Unless the man is a gentleman who likes to touch his wife." I whispered in Stephanie's ear.

"Two buddies were sharing drinks while discussing their wives. "Do you and your wife ever do it doggie style?" asked the one. "Well, not exactly." His friend replied, "She's more into the trick dog aspect of it." "Oh, I see, kinky, huh?" "Well, not exactly. I sit up and beg, and she rolls over and plays dead." Oshanna and Stephanie were laughing out loud and I kept my comments to myself. I had learned in my teens that if you were out to please yourself or get taken care of, it was an unfulfilling night. But if you focused on giving your partner an unforgettable time, pleasuring them first, you got totally satisfied in the end and they come back for more.

Oshanna continued with the jokes. "A 92-year-old man is walking through a park and sees a talking frog. He picks up the frog and the frogs says, "If you kiss me, I will turn into a beautiful princess and be yours for a week." The old man puts the frog in his pocket. The frog screams, "Hey if you kiss me, I will turn into a beautiful princess and make love to you for a whole month." The old man looks at the frog and says, "At my age I'd rather have a talking frog."

Stephanie kept the jokes going.

A mother is in the kitchen one day, preparing dinner for the family.

Her teenage daughter walks in and asks her, "Mommy where do babies come from?"

The mother thinks for a while before deciding she ought to be honest with her daughter. She says, "Well honey, Mommy and Daddy fall in love and get married. One night they go into their bedroom, they kiss and hug, and then they have sex."

The daughter looks confused so the mother says, "That means that Daddy puts his penis in Mommy's vagina. That's how you get a baby."

The daughter thinks for a moment and then seems to understand. Then she says, "Oh I see. But the other night when I came into your room you had Daddy's penis in your mouth. What do you get when you do that?"

The mother replies, "Jewelry, my dear. Jewelry."

They both laughed hilariously. If I hadn't known better I would have thought Stephanie had already been drinking. Then Oshanna continued with a bunch of one-liners.

"What's the difference between the G-spot and a golf ball?

A guy will search for a golf ball!"

"What's the difference between your job and a dead hooker?

Your job still sucks."

"What's the difference between a hooker and a drug dealer?

A hooker can wash her crack and sell it again."

"I found a prostitute who said she'll do anything for $50.

Guess who got his front porch repainted?"

"What's six inches long, two inches wide and drives women wild?

A hundred dollar bill."

"I asked a Chinese girl for her number and she said, "Sex! Sex! Sex! Free sex tonight!

I said "Wow!"

Then her friend said, "She means 666-3629."

"What do boobs and toys have in common?

They were both originally made for kids, but daddies end up playing with them."

Then Stephanie starts on another longer one.

"A family is having dinner at the table one evening when the son asks the father, "Dad, how many kinds of boobs are there?"

The father is taken aback, but he ponders for a moment before answering, "Well my son, a woman goes through three phases in her life. In her 20's her breasts are like melons, round and firm. In her 30's and 40's, they become like pears. Still nice but hanging a bit. But after 50, her breasts become like onions."

The son is confused and asks, "Onions?"

The father replies, "Yes – you see them and they make you cry."

The wife and daughter are really annoyed by what their father has said, so the daughter asks, "Mom, how many different kinds of penises are there?"

The mother smiles and says, "Well honey, a man goes through three phases in life too. In his 20's, his willy is like an oak tree, mighty, strong and hard. In his 30's and 40's it becomes more like a birch – flexible but reliable. But after 50, it's like a Christmas tree."

The daughter laughs and asks, "A Christmas tree?"

The mother replies, "Yes dear. Dead from the root up and the balls are just for decoration."

I wanted to tell Stephanie that in my family the men are like Charlie Chaplin, lasting forever. He fathered his last child at 73 with his wife that was like twenty-five years younger or twenty-five years old I couldn't remember. We keep it strong and hard for many years.

The girls just kept on laughing and repeating jokes all the way to the club. I had picked The Conga Room to go to because it was Latin flavored and I wanted to teach Stephanie some of the dances I grew up with. Secondly, they had great screening and strict security and Skylar had, of course, gotten our names on the list. We had a little trouble getting our security through security because they were all wearing stun guns. But after ditching the weaponry they were welcomed into the club.

Lester sat at our table and half of the other eight guards, my mother's had reluctantly gone home with her, managed to get another table near ours with the rest taking up positions along the side wall. Part of the reason I wanted so many men along was because I wanted to dance and the only way I could let enough of my guard down to enjoy myself was if I had plenty of men watching my back.

The night went well. Some singer was being featured when we arrived and we all sat, watched the show and ordered drinks. Well, Oshanna and Stephanie ordered drinks, the rest of us just got water. Once Oshanna got far enough away from the men in black to look available, several men began to ask her to dance.

After a short while I led Stephanie out onto the dance floor and began showing her some of my favorite dances. We started with the Cha-Cha because that was what was playing but moved on to the Rumba, the Salsa she already knew, but then I taught her the Bachata.

Stephanie is naturally graceful on the dance floor thanks in part to 'burg' ballroom dance classes growing up. But when doing Latin dances, she is a marvel with smooth graceful delivery and hips that just won't quit. She was extremely good with all the dances and it didn't take us too long till we were hip to hip grinding together, practically having sex standing up on the dance floor.

When Stephanie ordered her third drink about midnight I knew that the night was soon going to be coming to a close and the horizontal Mumba that I so enjoy was not going to be on the menu by the time we got home.

I lost track of how many drinks Oshanna had but because Stephanie ordered her third I told Oshanna it was last call and that we were going to wrap the night up. She pouted at me and I knew she was still of an age to close the bars down. I reminded her that we had Universal Studios in the morning and if she was too tired and hungover she wouldn't enjoy the rides. We ducked out about 00:35 and made it back to the houses about 01:30.

Stephanie passed out on the way home and I had to carry her upstairs and put her to bed. I didn't mind it, when I get her ready for bed it means we sleep naked. At about midnight Hector had emailed me a list of accounts and where the money was coming from. I was grateful Stephanie was asleep because I wanted a chance to go over them before morning.

Thursday May 21 02:00

Sergio had three personal accounts. One checking and savings account in Colombia and one checking account in Panama that his ex-wife was on. His current wife had a credit card with no limit but no direct access to any of his money.

He had five investment accounts, all under one of his corporations that held over three point eight billion dollars. This money was invested around the world in the US markets, the European markets, China, the general Asian markets including India, and South American markets.

That's where the clarity ended, Sergio's business accounts were a massive web of lies. I had a five-page diagram showing two hundred fifty six different bank accounts all belonging to his many companies and subsidiaries totaling over one point four billion dollars. His companies' balance sheets were about the same. All his lands, buildings, trucks, planes, ships, and equipment were worth over one point two billion dollars.

I could drain his bank accounts dry tomorrow but he is making tens of millions of dollars a month with all his companies and it wouldn't take him long to have enough to come back after me again. He has created a lot of powerful allies and business partners that would come after anyone who would take him out.

I studied his accounts and the one-month cash flow that showed where money was coming from and how he moved it around his businesses. Several obvious ones right up front were for his legitimate business practices, but a lot of smaller ones funneled money from one business to another paying the fees and profits till they reached the top. His businesses were like one big pyramid scheme.

In the shipping companies, the actual company that made the money shipping the items had to turn around and pay the holding companies that technically 'owned' the trucks, planes, ships, shipping containers, etc monthly fees and a percent of the profits. Then they had to pay rent on all the buildings they used, again to the holding companies that actually owned the properties with a percent of the profits. Each of the shipping companies plus each of the holding companies then paid one of eleven corporate offices for managing the businesses with a higher percent of the profits. Then the eleven corporate offices paid one of the seven corporations he was CEO or president of fees for running their companies and a percent of the profits. The percent of profits grew each rung of the ladder so that ninety percent of the profits were being paid directly to the companies he was CEO of, then transferred to him as his salary and monthly bonuses.

Three businesses made the money, they paid two more businesses rent plus profits. Then all five businesses paid one business management fees plus profits. This business paid his corporation fees plus profits, which paid him salary plus bonus. It was confusing and brilliant. He could manufacture the rent and fees to soak up most of the money made every month, plus profits to take up the rest so that all of the money being made was passed to the top, while all one hundred fifty-three businesses that made up the bottom were scraping by, paying their people minimum wages and barely keeping the lights on. All of the holding companies that actually 'owned' the properties were deeply in debt having hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars in loans that they owed and paid each month to the eleven companies that were higher up.

Hector had simplified the whole scheme tremendously because each of the holding companies had a minimum of two accounts and each of the shipping companies had two accounts. In fact, all one hundred seventy two businesses managed two hundred fifty six different bank accounts that the money was shuffled through each month. Hector deserved a raise for this spreadsheet alone.

I wasn't sure by looking at the whole mess there was any direct way to get money out of him. I started to doubt that killing him outright was the best way to handle this. There were too many people involved that would avenge his death and continue to come after me. I needed to take enough from him to make him bleed and threaten his life and his children. Hector included a personal bio on each member of his family.

Sergio himself is forty nine. He has one brother that is married with seven children and is CEO of the cargo shipping company. His sister is married with three kids. Her husband is CEO of the coffee (and cocaine) conglomeration. His mother and grandmother are still alive and living on his western compound. His first wife was never able to have children and after many failed surgical attempts, twelve years into the marriage, died from a 'heart attack' under mysterious circumstances. She was only thirty-two and he was thirty-four.

He remarried that same year and his first child was born days after his thirty-sixth birthday. The second wife had two more girls, but had complications after that, miscarrying twice and he divorced her and moved her out of the country. He remarried at forty-five and has been married four years. She gave him another son and is rumored to be pregnant again.

His older children may not live with him but the rumors are he desperately loves them. His eldest, a thirteen-year-old son, is already being groomed to take over his empire. His two daughters are said to have him wrapped around their fingers.

His newest wife and three-year-old son are the ones he lives with daily and are said to be 'precious' to him. I don't know how precious the wife is when he already has a mistress. She is the daughter of a high powered, well connected politician that gives Sergio prestige, his businesses credibility, and lucrative government contracts. According to her bio she is twenty-six years old and they have been married four years. From her picture I can see that she is very beautiful.

He has been flying to Venezuela for eight months to see the mistress he has there. According to her picture and fact sheet she is the daughter of a cocaine farmer. He bought her and set her up with guards outside of the country so she can't get away. Her bio says that she is now fifteen years old and is a prisoner on that property. Fucking perverted pedophile! I want to cut off his dick. Forty-nine and she was fourteen. All I could imagine is that woman on the video and him drugging and doing the same things to my Jewels.

This is his third known young mistress. At least he waits until they hit puberty. Not that it makes it right but I've taken down men who abused girls much younger. Being his mistress however, brings a short life expectancy. His last two recorded mistresses died badly. One got pregnant and he disposed of her before she got to her second term. It seems he wants a lot of kids but only from his wives. When the other turned nineteen he discarded her for being too old, making her a slave on one of his cocaine production lines. He'd already gotten her addicted to cocaine and heroin and when she got caught trying to snort what she was supposed to be packaging she was killed.

I sent a text to Hector and Tank to bring in a team, that I needed full bio's on all his business partners and associates by Saturday morning. All of his partners, everyone high up in his current companies, and every company he has done more than a hundred million dollars worth of business within the last year or so. I went back to studying where his money was coming from and where it was going. If I cut the head off this snake I had to know whose bank accounts I would be hurting and who would want retribution.

The next time I looked at my watch it was 05:00 and I hadn't yet gone to bed. I realized I had instructed the families to be ready to leave by 07:30, meaning most would be getting up between 06:00 and 06:30. My mama would be up by 06:00 to cook for the family. Any other day I would have an extra cup of coffee and stay up, but all day with my family at a theme park called for at least two hours of sleep. The most I could get now was one and three-quarters so I climbed up the stairs past Mario, pulled Stephanie into my arms and set my alarm for 06:45.

At the sound of my alarm I woke disoriented which never happens to me. I was caught up in the throes of a dream; of men hunting Stephanie and I was hunting the men. My mind cleared instantly and I dragged Stephanie up and into the shower concerned that what she was really going to need this morning was The Cure. Once in the shower she dropped her head onto my chest and practically fell back asleep right there. I washed her hair and declared her good enough.

I tried to get her dressed but she barely cracked open her bloodshot eyes, vetoed everything I picked out, flopped back on the bed and fell asleep. I sent Mario out for The Cure, got myself ready to go in cargo shorts with one of Ella's black tank tops, and went downstairs. I quickly ate a blueberry yogurt and fruit as cold cereal was the breakfast being served for speed this morning. I was wishing that I could have brought Ella to feed the masses, but knew that my mother would take it as a personal insult and challenge that her cooking wasn't good enough. Then instead of relaxing with the family, she and my sisters would spend all day in the kitchen trying to outdo Ella.

Ella was my mother's younger sister. Personally, they really liked each other, send them shopping and they will joyfully spend all day together, wearing out your credit card. But several years after my mother was married she was really sick for Thanksgiving and somehow Ella volunteered to do the cooking for the family. She got rave reviews and even my father told her the turkey was the best he had ever had. That started her cooking for every holiday at my grandparent's house, inviting all the family there for the celebrations.

She got named in the family as the 'best cook' and to this day my mother takes every opportunity to try to outdo her and prove that she is really the best cook. When I hired Ella and Louis to take care of my building it made the rivalry worse. Even though Ella goes to visit her kids on most holidays and isn't there to cook for us, my mother insists on me coming home to have some of her home cooked meals and always wants to know how it rates.

I just shake my head because the truth is that before RangeMan, Ella never had a career. She stayed home and raised her children. But there is no denying she is a naturally gifted chef. She can take the most mundane recipe or ingredients and make them burst with delight on the tongue. More amazingly she can take the healthiest foods and make them so good Stephanie eats them up moaning her way through every meal. Not that I would ever tell my mother this, but this twenty-five plus year debate over who is better in the kitchen needs to be buried. My mother should be proud of the career she has and the six children she raised and let the matter go.

I was standing in the kitchen, loading my dishes in the dishwasher, debating on the bad feelings I was having and trying to determine their origin when Mario returned. I finished my second cup of coffee and accepted the bag of golden food. A while ago I had decided that there was some kind of science behind 'The Cure'. French fries had grease to get the alcohol moving through the liver, salt to restore some electrolytes, and the coke had sugar and caffeine to get the brain going again. And somehow the magical combination made her headache and hangover go away. It was somewhat of a mystery but I climbed the stairs with my treasure and 20 minutes to get Stephanie out the door.

I didn't pussyfoot around. I didn't wake her gently. From a dead sleep I picked her up and propped her against the headboard. Her bleary bloodshot eyes popped open and I put the bag of fries in one hand and the coke in the other. "Eat, you have 5 minutes." Then I asked her quickfire questions.

"Jeans or shorts?"

"Shorts"

"What color shorts?"

"My jeans shorts." I lifted the folded pair out of the dresser. I walked to the closet.

"What color shirt?"

"Red t-shirt."

"That red one." She pointed as I lifted two hanging shirts from the closet.

"What color sandals?"

"Brown" I picked up two pairs and she pointed to the pair on the left. She was more awake now, shoving handfuls of fries in her mouth between answers. Once clothes were laid out on the bed I leaned her forward scooting her down a little so I could get behind her and do her hair. I squirted too much Mr. Alexander's curly hair goo into my hand and worked it through her hair. I quickly brushed it back, put it into a ponytail and pushed her towards the clothes. "Five minutes Babe. Eat while you dress."

She dragged herself off the bed and managed to dress while never setting her coke down. I walked her to the bathroom, her purse in one hand. "I have your sunscreen. Just pack your makeup. We have an hour's drive you can put it on in the car." She looked in the mirror a bit more coherent and packed her concealer, mascara, light blue eye color, light pink blush, lip gloss and her compact.

"Can you eat breakfast? There is cold cereal downstairs." I asked her and she nodded. I took her hand and led her down the stairs and sat her in a dining room chair. I looked at my watch 07:25. Quite a few of the children were downstairs excitedly eating and chattering about the day. I put a bowl of frosted flakes in front of her and got a weak smile. Good step. She would make it now.

As I stood back to watch her I had a growing dread in the pit of my stomach. I don't know if it was from a lack of sleep or if taking my whole family to a theme park was too much for me today. I shook it off. Maybe it was just the worry of being so exposed. Maybe it was just the dread of trying to stay cheerful with my family driving me nuts on less than two hours of sleep. I didn't know but I had to let it go and get on with this day.

I looked around to see Oshanna up, dressed and mainlining coffee as she stood in the kitchen, leaning against the counter, pouring it into her cup adding milk and sugar. Blowing on it for a few minutes and then drinking it down. Refilling the cup and repeating the doctoring process. Blowing to cool it and drinking it down. My men were trickling in and congregating in the living room. Within minutes most of my family had arrived.

"Good morning everyone. Just pass along what I'm telling you to anyone that is not here." I addressed them. "Steph and I are leaving in the next few minutes. Once there I'm going to get the tickets for everyone. These will be VIP express tickets as arranged by my travel agent, there are special VIP entrances and you will skip the line and be able to get straight on the rides." A ripple of excited conversation went up through the crowd so I raised my voice.

"This means you will be able to get through the park faster, but the reason for it is safety. I can't have you standing around in line after line, for an hour at a time like sitting ducks in a shooting gallery. The goal today is to have fun, but safety is paramount. Keep your guys in sight at all times and make sure they have their eyes on you. They will stand in line with you, they will go on the rides with you, they will eat with you. They are your shadow, do not lose them in the crowds. Hourly check-ins will be by text. The park closes at 8:00 pm. Call me if anyone needs to leave before then. Don't forget sunscreen and to drink plenty of water today. Stay safe and have lots of fun."

I nodded to Tiger and Marc and went to collect Stephanie's bowl but she wrapped her arm protectively around it. "Almost done." she murmured. Leyla and Isabella approached me, "How long should we wait till we follow you?"

"Give me fifteen minutes. It shouldn't take me long to get everything taken care of."

Stephanie stood and took her bowl to the sink, rinsed it and loaded it in the stainless-steel dishwasher. She looked mostly awake. I took her hand and led her out to the waiting SUV. She leaned her head against my shoulder and almost immediately fell back asleep. Damn, she had drunk the coke but I never got any coffee into her.

"Stephanie needs coffee. Find a drive thru and get her some." Ten minutes later they pulled into a Starbucks and I couldn't help but smile. I knew that Marc liked their expensive flavored coffee, but fancy coffee was lost on people like me that drank it black. Regardless, I got a large plain one for me, an order that they had to repeat twice because no one could believe that I wanted a plain black coffee with nothing in it, and a Venti Mocha Latte for Steph with lots of sugar to go.

Julio texted saying he was up and getting ready for the day and needed to know where to meet up. I let him know we were thirty minutes out and to wait out front of his hotel, that my men would get him. I texted Ram, Zip and Zero to pick up Julio at his hotel and make sure he wasn't followed. The dread was back. Was something bad going to happen for real or was my subconscious trying to warn me again about bringing my whole family together to a theme park? This could be a recipe for melt-downs and personal disasters.

I let Stephanie sleep for ten more minutes, knowing we had thirty before arriving at the theme park. Then I shook her slowly awake and handed her the coffee I had already sweetened. She blinked her eyes open and said thanks as she lifted off of me and took it.

"Babe, if you want to put make-up on you have twenty minutes before we arrive." Her eyes popped open, becoming more awake and she handed me back the coffee as she got her bag out and started putting on her make-up. Her bruises were greatly reduced and down to the green and yellow stage but I was sure she would want them covered for another few days. I realized that this was a two-handed operation and occasionally handed her the coffee in between applications.

When we arrived, and found the ticket counter we were sent to the VIP customer service station. They already had all fifty-one tickets printed and in lanyards, but wanted picture IDs before they would release each one. I got Skyler on the phone and she worked her magic on the manager. Getting him to check my ID and since the credit card paying for the rest was in my name releasing all of the VIP tickets for me to distribute.

I was feeling better about us divided up into groups, as everyone got their tickets and spread out going their own way. The dread was there but it was lower on the scale than it had been this morning. Before leaving the house, the families divided up much like they had on the ship. Rachel, Ron and Leyla were following the older girls and Cassie; Richard and Diego took all the middle-aged boys; Isabella and Angelia took the younger girls and both three-year olds, with my parents and grandparents in tow to help out. Every group had their entourage of big, bulky men in black following them devotedly around.

The morning passed by quickly for our group of Oshanna, Julio, Lester, Stephanie and me with Bobby, Mark, and Tiger following dutifully behind. A morning of family and fun had Lester sticking with us as part of the group and I appreciated having his eyes so closely on Oshanna as she would let him go with her on the rides instead of just riding in the next car back. Oshanna had downloaded the app onto her phone and led the way through the park.

When we got to the first attraction – The Walking Dead – Stephanie steadfastly refused and Oshanna finally skipped it. We then walked the park to find the Despicable Me ride, where the ride entrance looked like the house from the movie with his giant car in the garage that people waited to have a turn, to take their picture with, as well as a giant sized Gru and several minions in costume loitering about.

We entered the house to find a huge maze of lines and got handed a pair of 3-D glasses. Then hustled into a room where we were all 'interviewed' to work in Gru's lab and be turned into Minions. The "ride" was a large auditorium of seats that moved up and down, and back and forth in rows while you watched a movie "adventure" on a large screen.

We had our VIP passes so they let us in first but I was insisting on our group being put in two rows together as a whole and not split up throughout the large room. I don't even know how they can call this a ride. All you got was being shaken and stirred while watching a 3-D movie. I was just thankful we didn't have to stand in a long line before being so disappointed.

Once we got outside into the bright sunlight, we wandered through the parks the crowds being less than normal. As it was several weeks before the end of the school year for most schools the number of school aged children was really low and the park attendance was low leaving smaller crowds to fight through and smaller lines.

When we left Oshanna led the way across the park to Springfield, the mock up of the Simpson's home town. Stephanie and Oshanna were enjoying seeing the colorfully costume cast, constantly stopping to take pictures with them as we moved throughout the park. She led us onto the Simpson's "ride" and again it was just seats that moved in front of a huge movie screen. Yet I could hear people laughing, screaming and shrieking as if they were scared and reacting as if it was real. Maybe if you didn't have a life this was thrilling. I've done too many real "thrilling" things like jumping out of airplanes, being in firefights and trying not to get blown up to think this was a thrill. But Stephanie and Oshanna had big smiles on their faces so they were obviously enjoying it.

Next thing I know I was dragged into the Wizarding World of Harry Potter where we ran into Julie and crew. We spent the rest of the morning following around the pre-teen trio, as they explored the fifth of the park completely devoted to Harry Potter fans. Julie had made me watch several of the movies with her when she was ten and I was impressed that everything looked just like the movies.

The girls led us through the village towards the Harry Potter themed rides. As soon as I was handed the 3-D glasses I expected another stadium movie. But the Harry Potter ride was an actual moving roller coaster that only sat four to a row and each row moved independently through the ride. The girls were all in a huddle deciding who was going to ride with who and I grabbed Stephanie's hand to guarantee I was seated with her. I still had that feeling in my gut that we shouldn't be here today and I'll be damned if I let her get separated from me.

The ride was better than expected. I had never been on a 4-D ride where you get blasted with heat and cold air to simulate what was going on during the ride. It made it more real and when we got off and the girls announced they had to ride it again I didn't have any problem agreeing. The third time they announced they were going to ride it I was thinking of just waiting at the end of the ride until they announced that this time they wanted to go through the castle, not take the VIP shortcut that shuttles you to the front of the line.

Several workers had told them they were missing out and so we walked back through the endless waving maze of metal poles that long lines of people in the summer would normally be waiting in to get to the castle entrance where two times before we had been split off and ushered to the front of the line – all ten people and twelve guards that were constantly surrounding them. This time though we went left and soon were in rooms full of 'live talking portraits' where the girls stayed till they had run through the whole show twice.

Then more rooms of the castle with more talking portraits, the singing lady who guards the entrance to Gryffindor's room in the movie. A short bit of Harry Ron and Hermione hiding under their invisibility cloak and Dumbledore talking to us, the sorting hat was cute and just like it looked in the movies, then finally we were back to taking the ride. Once again I rode with Stephanie because with this bad feeling in my gut I really didn't want to let her out of my sight.

Finally, the girls turned in their glasses and led the way to the next rollercoaster the Flight of the Hippogriff. This was a real live "old fashion" roller coaster on metal rails. Half my men were leading the way through to the front of the ride and started to be put in lines to get on the roller coaster cutting our group in half. Lester and Hal objected and quickly explained that we all rode together and to finish loading that coaster ahead of us.

I counted seats and these coasters had twenty-two seats so our whole crew could fit on at one time. It was good if not a little fast and the girls tumbled out and started running around, racing each other to the entrance again. While ten men in black shot to attention, several practically running over Rachel, Ron and Leyla trying to catch up with Julie.

We had to ride this ride three times so all the girls and then Stephanie and Oshanna got a turn riding in the front seats. Then the girls were happy to wander around the village some more, with four big men in black leading the way, fighting to stay in front of the exuberant teens. Finally they turned into Olivander's to see the wand show where Julie got picked to get fitted with her own wand. After two duds that caused craziness in the room when she waved it and chanted the magic words requested she got lit up by light just like Harry in the movie and it was the "right" wand.

Then the whole group of us were ushered out of the room into the wand shop where the parents of the picked child have to pay for the "right" wand. Well of course all the girls had to have a wand and eager employees were there encouraging children to pick out the wand they wanted from a huge selection. When they were finally satisfied I took them outside to a huge barrel that was five feet across and as high as the local buildings and I ordered them all Butterbeers. We walked through the village of Hogsmeade while the girls practiced spells. Left to their devices I think they would have spent most of their day just in this part of the park.

Finally Stephanie's stomach gave a growl, and though we had stopped for small snacks along the way, by the sound of the monster it was lunch time. We were looking for something good to eat. After many debates, looking at the map, and texting feverishly with other members of the family everyone decided to meet up back in Springfield to eat. Stephanie assured me this was a good idea because most of the family was on this side of the park and everyone wanted to hear what everybody else was doing or had done.

When we arrived back in Springfield Stephanie wasn't sure what she wanted, roaming from restaurant to restaurant to see what all was available, stopping in at the Kwik-E-Mart to see what touristy items were sold there. To my dismay all of the restaurants in Springfield were fast food and fast fried, no salad in sight. I knew we were 'on vacation' but after several days of eating differently than normal my body needed lean fuel, a large salad preferably with chicken breast.

As we walked out of Krusty Burger I noticed my family was congregating in the large open space between restaurants and it looked like open season on the Manoso family. Or like geese congregating in the winter around a large pond just waiting for the hunters to find them, surrounded by twenty four large black pit bulls. I sent a text to my men to stay alert and always surround the targets. The dread was back, with the hair on my arms almost standing on end and my skin wanting to crawl away from the danger.

I kept looking around but couldn't find any danger to Stephanie or anyone in my family. Maybe getting all of the family together for lunch wasn't such a great idea and I was being warned away from having everyone in one restaurant as one large target. I texted my men to split their groups back off and not let them all stay together out in the open. I led Stephanie away from the family and followed her as she explored all the options.

After walking the area, I was even more disappointed as the food options were oversized burgers at Krusty Burger, fried chicken of some kind at Cletus Chicken Shack, different kinds of drinks at Duff Brewery Beer Garden, personal pizzas at Luigi's Pizza, fried seafood at The Frying Dutchman, tacos at Bumblebee Man Taco Truck, hotdogs at Suds McGruff Hotdogs and for dessert donuts from Lard Lad Donuts or ice cream from Phineas Q Butterfat's Ice Cream.

I turned to Stephanie. "What do you want Babe?"

"I can't decide. I want to try them all. I want to know how a Krusty Burger compares to Mc Donald's. Or how Cletus Chicken compares to Cluck-n-a-Bucket, or how Luigi's compares to Pino's. Scrap that last one, they don't have meatball subs or large pizzas to share. So how about some fried chicken for lunch?"

"Babe." This was coupled with a seriously I'm not eating fried chicken look but I waved my arm in that direction for her to lead the way.

I was pleased that the guards were continuing to split up automatically as they had been doing all morning. Some were going in the front of the lines to order first and some were staying in the back of the lines so that the women were always protected. Finally, Stephanie had her fried chicken sandwich with fries and I had a grilled chicken sandwich hold the mayo. Tiger had led the way through the line and secured us a table against the back wall, but Stephanie got her tray and walked right out of the restaurant.

"Babe, where are you going?" I asked as I followed closely behind, grabbing her arm to bring her to a halt.

"Everyone else is getting burgers. I don't want a silent lunch alone with you and your non-talking men. I told Oshanna I would meet up with them. She said she would save us a seat." She told me as she pulled out of my grasp and started walking again. I followed her unquestioningly, tilting my head to Tiger, Marc and Bobby to follow.

Krusty Burger was busy but they had an upper level and Stephanie led us up the stairs. True to her word, Oshanna lit up as soon as Stephanie walked into the room and waved her over. While she had saved a seat for Stephanie and me she hadn't saved seats for Stephanie's guards and they had to sit several tables over. It looked like half of my family was there with the exception of the boys who went for hotdogs and Rachel, Leyla and the teenaged girls whom I was told went for pizza.

Lunch was a loud and messy fourteen-person, family affair as we had Angelia and Isabella and all the kids six and under. Fortunately, they had specialty plates for the small kids. Not surprisingly, within the first five minutes Shanna had spilled ketchup all over herself and Ricky had dumped his whole tray on the floor. This required Angelia, who sat on the other side of Oshanna trying to talk about the day, to go through the food line all over again.

I ate quickly as did my men who were on high alert in such a large place with so many targets. Angelia left her kids sitting with my parents to finish their meals, while she sat again with Oshanna and Stephanie to gossip about all they had done this morning and complain about all the rides she couldn't go on with the small kids in tow.

When most everyone was done eating Oshanna declared that she had to go to the bathroom and Stephanie agreed. Angelia got her kids to take with them and a whole traveling troupe with only three guards made their way to the bathroom in the back of the restaurant. Minutes later the whole group was making their way down the stairs and I was up with the other guards to follow them.

"Where are we going Babe?" I asked as I caught up to Stephanie.

"There are only three stalls in there and a long line. We are going to the large public bathroom that is right around the corner. There are like twelve stalls and a line of sinks and we can all get washed up together." I nodded my head at her and followed behind. Signaling for my men to take turns watching the two entrances of the bathroom while the rest took turns using the facilities themselves.

I stood outside the bathroom with my men for many minutes knowing that the women could be in there easily for fifteen to twenty minutes. Especially Angelia, who has to help each of her kids go to the bathroom and wash their hands. Then they have to clean up, re-fix their hair and refresh their make-up. Maybe this pit of dread gnawing at my stomach was the dread of standing out here for an hour waiting for all the women to finish in the bathroom.

Rachel, Julie, Becky, Maggie, Cassie and Leyla soon joined the group. Now there were five of us standing outside the restroom on this side and six on the other. I knew it was time for me to use the facilities myself and take a break from the constant high alert of guarding targets in such an open arena.

I was standing at the sink washing my hands when I heard my name being shouted and the code 'red alert'. I ran out of the bathroom, warning bells going off in my head, my heart pounding, wiping my wet hands on my pants wondering what was happening to have yelling and alerts with four or more men guarding the bathroom.

I was shocked to find Junior, Sport, and Lester on the ground outside the woman's bathroom surrounded by huge rolls of toilet paper, paper towels and several bags of trash. Laying several feet apart as if they were ambushed and were trying to fight when they got taken out. I ran inside the bathroom to find Becky unconscious on the floor, purses and day bags strewn all over the counters and spilled out on the floor, while Cassandra, Shanna and Ricky were standing around in shock, crying.

"Stephanie!" came out of my mouth as I opened every stall finding all but one empty.

To be continued…

A/N: Here is a bonus chapter. Regular posting will be on Friday.

Thank you all for your reviews! Thank you to www dot thelaughfactory dot com and laffgaff dot com for all the funnies.I just enjoyed adding them too much. The bad guys found them again and grabbed the women, what is Ranger going to do now? Please read and review.

As always big THANK YOU to my beta Sassysaint who adds so much to my stories. Thank you!

Second Big THANK YOU to my sister, Jonelle. Who is giving my stories a thorough technical analysis (ie deep proof reading). Thank you for fixing all my many little mistakes.

Ranger's Family Album

Mother's Mother – Abuela Rosa, Father's Mother – Abuela Sanja Manoso

Mother – Maria Father – Javier

Siblings and family in age order

Leyla (35) & Richard Gonzales– Rebecca (Becky) 12, Margaret (Maggie) 10, Richard (Ricky) 7, Michael (Mikie) 5

Angelia (34) & Jordan White – Shanna 5 – Kendrick (Ricky) 3

Ricardo Carlos Manoso (32)– Ranger

Julio Manoso (30) Ex Allysa – Jacob 2

Isabella (27) & Diego Diaz – Chris 8, Shylia 6, Parker 3

Oshanna Manoso (22)

Rachel & Ron – Julie 12, Fredrico (Freddie) 9, Cassandra (Cassie) 6

Trenton & Miami Merry Men Assignments (33 Men)

Abuela Sanja – Vince, Ian

Abuela Rosa – Manuel, Gavin

Maria – Erik, Francis

Leyla – Hal, Tony

Angelia – Woody, Dillion

Isabella – Cal, Red

Oshanna – Lester, Sport

Rachel – Eddie, Pace

Julie – Junior, Scott

Stephanie – Ranger, Marc, Tiger

Extra's – Bobby, Ram, Zero, Zip

Night's – Chet, Chester, Gino, Mario, Ryan, Ramon, Billy, Cade, Simon


	21. Chapter 21 The Leak

Chapter 21 The Leak

Ok just for you great reviewers, here is 21 a day early.

 _I was standing at the sink washing my hands when I heard my name being shouted and the code 'red alert'. I ran out of the bathroom, warning bells going off in my head, my heart pounding, wiping my wet hands on my pants wondering what was happening to have yelling and alerts with four or more men guarding the bathroom._

 _I was shocked to find Junior, Sport, and Lester on the ground outside the woman's bathroom surrounded by huge rolls of toilet paper, paper towels and several bags of trash. Laying several feet apart as if they were ambushed and were trying to fight when they got taken out. I ran inside the bathroom to find Becky unconscious on the floor, purses and day bags strewn all over the counters and spilled out on the floor, while Cassandra, Shanna and Ricky were standing around in shock, crying._

" _Stephanie!" came out of my mouth as I opened every stall finding all but one empty_.

I looked under the locked stall to Maggie crying out "Uncle Carlos" as she tried to cover herself. I ran back out of the other entrance looking around to find Woody and Hal, more bags of trash and several rolls of toilet paper on the ground. All of my men were now on high alert, Bobby, Ram, Zip and Zero showing up to help with the search.

Now I knew what the impending dread I had felt all day was trying to tell me: there was an imminent threat to the women. I cursed myself for ignoring it. When I go out on missions I tune in to my gut instincts and they are never wrong. Back in civilian life I trust them when I need them to warn me about personal danger to myself. With my family in the mix I can't seem to trust my gut, first at my parent's house with the shooting and now at the theme park.

It's just that if I tell my men I have a bad feeling they listen and we make a new plan. If I told my family this morning that I had a bad feeling and we shouldn't go I would get a lot of flack and we would have ended up going anyway. I needed to get a handle on these feelings and what they were telling me so I could continue to protect my family. My biggest problem was that I was unable to treat my family like my men. I was struggling to keep them entertained and let them do what they wanted while keeping them safe. If it were my men, I would have ordered them to stay in a safe house and been done with it.

Bobby immediately started checking out the unconscious men on the ground, as I pulled up several tracking programs on my phone, watching my men do the same. I sent Ram back into the bathroom to collect the children as I pushed buttons on my phone desperately trying to get the programs started while watching for retreating forms holding onto the women.

Looking around I could see lots of families everywhere but the women were nowhere to be found. Every woman should have their phone with trackers, IDs and credit cards with RFT tags and Stephanie had her watch. I pulled up two tracking programs on my phone, the first with all the phone trackers on them and the second with Stephanie's watch tracker. I knew my men who were still with their assigned women would get them somewhere safe, so I looked for all moving trackers.

 _Mierda_ , _dios maldito al infierno_. How in the hell can there be five guards and still the women were taken? The trackers were moving in three different directions. I watched in alarm as Angelia's and Oshanna's trackers were moving to the right. Leyla's and Rachel's were moving straight ahead. Stephanie's and Julie's trackers were moving to the left behind buildings. My men were congregated in a group also pulling up the trackers on their phones. _(Fuck, God dammit to hell)_

"Split up: Tiger, Marc and Scott left with me, Zip and Zero with Dillon go right, Eddie, Tony and Pace straight ahead. Go!" I ordered, taking off at a run. I ran through the crowds like the hounds of hell were chasing me until I was on a small path that continued behind the buildings with very few people on it. As I rounded another corner it showed Stephanie and Julie were directly ahead but I didn't see them walking or being carried as I continued to run at a break neck speed with Marc, Tiger and Scott just steps behind me.

I searched the area, realization dawning on me as my eyes locked onto two men in long sleeve tan shirts and tan pants pushing two carts, one large gray trash cart with a black lid and a second supply cart with a broom and dust pan attached to the back filled with industrial sized rolls of toilet paper and paper towels stacked on it. The men pushing the carts turned around and as soon as they saw us, ditched the carts and started running.

"Get them." I ordered to Tiger and Scott, pointing to the two men who were splitting up as I got to the carts. Marc and I lifted the large black lid to find several trash bags covering Julie, who was laying on top of Stephanie. Both were unconscious, folded up on their sides in an almost fetal position. I pushed the cart over to the side of a building, leaving the other cart and bags of trash in the middle of the path.

This small path was deserted, not being used by the majority of the crowds as it was longer and went behind the buildings that people wanted to get to. I very carefully lifted Julie out, with Marc getting Stephanie and we laid them flat on the ground. My phone was pinging with texts. Tony and Pace had found Leyla and Rachel in a supply closet, no sign of their attackers. Both women were unconscious but otherwise unharmed. Tony was waiting with the women while Pace and Eddie were searching for the men.

Dillon reported they found Angelia and Oshanna abandoned in another large gray trash cart with two men walking quickly away that Zip and Zero had detained. I texted my men that all of the missing women had been located and to watch out for attackers wearing tan janitorial outfits and possibly pushing janitorial carts.

I checked Stephanie and Julie over carefully, making sure they were both breathing normally and called Bobby who reported the men at the bathroom had been stunned and were starting to wake up. I requested his presence immediately, sending a text to the now waking men to get the fuck up and locate their targets. I stood guard over Stephanie and Julie, hoping they would wake any moment while I called each group for a verbal update. Marc headed to go help apprehend the assailants.

Suddenly Stephanie's eye's popped open. She was startled and disoriented as she frantically tried to get up to her feet.

"Relax, Babe. Give yourself a minute. I think you were stunned." I gently pressed my hands against her shoulders as I tried to calm her and keep her in place at the same time. I didn't want her moving around in case she had injuries I couldn't see. I relaxed a little as I watched the panic in her eyes slowly dissipate.

"Just stay here on the ground. Bobby is on the way to check you out." No sooner were the words out of my mouth did Bobby show up, phone in hand following the trackers.

"How are they?" He asked as he walked towards us.

"Steph just woke up. Julie is still out."

He knelt down by Stephanie, talking to her quietly, checking her vitals and then checking her all over. Julie started to stir so I knelt down and started talking to her.

"Hey Jewels. How are you feeling?"

"Tingly. Dizzy. Nauseous." She started trying to sit up.

I put my hand on her shoulder. "Just stay down for a moment. Bobby's going to check you out next." Stephanie was now sitting up and looking around as Bobby quietly spoke to her.

Julie looked up at me. "What happened? I was in the bathroom washing my hands next to Becky. These men came in and…I woke up here."

"It seems that several guys hit your guards outside the bathroom and stunned you. We caught up with them here." As I spoke I could see Marc, Tiger and Scott walking back with six assailants in a double line, wrists zip tied together. Bobby helped Stephanie stand and came over to help Julie.

"Stephanie stay with Bobby. I will be right back." I told her as I walked over to meet with Marc.

"They made a break for a ten-foot ladder propped against the wall. We caught them trying to climb over the wall where there is a rear maintenance entrance. As we were walking away with the first two, two more came running around the corner heading for the ladder. We left the first two with Scott. Tiger and I apprehended the second two. When we climbed the ladder, we found two more waiting in white vans. We climbed the wall and ran them down. None of them are armed. All of them have these short-range radios on them. Here are keys, probably for both of the utility vans parked outside the back gate. They all had cigarettes and lighters on them. Other than that, they were clean." Marc reported.

As we were talking I walked Marc over to the supply cart the men had abandoned and began searching it for weapons. On the second shelf, in between the extra-large rolls of paper towels there were two, foot long black police issue stun batons. I handed the weapons off to Marc and finished my search not finding anything else.

"Take them and load them up in one of their vans. Text the location to Zip and Zero and have them bring their prisoners too. I'm going to get everyone out of the park. Get the prisoners loaded up and around to the entrance. Then we will switch, you are in charge of getting everyone back home. Have Tiger pick me up out front. We'll need a secure debriefing location." I sent out a text that Ram and Bobby were now assigned to Stephanie until we arrive back at the houses.

"Yes Sir."

"Scott, you are with Julie." He looked disappointed and I knew all of my men would love to have a few private minutes alone with the captured men to relieve a little pent-up agitation caused when the women were taken.

I walked back over to find Julie now standing up brushing herself off. I took her into my arms and gave her a big hug. "You doing okay?" I looked down at her.

"Sure Dad. I felt weird when I first woke up like I was disoriented, but now I feel fine."

"Good, let's get back to the group. Brown check everybody over, make sure there are no injuries."

"Yes Sir."

I put my arm around Stephanie and took Julie's hand and started walking back to the food court. As Stephanie became more aware she started complaining.

"My arm is all sticky and the left side of my shorts are yuck." She said as she started running her hand down the side of her shorts. She stopped suddenly looking down. "What is brown on my shorts? and leg?" She shrieked becoming more alarmed.

"Babe, you just need to wash up a little. Calm down you're mostly okay."

"But my shorts! These are my favorite pair of jean shorts." She said holding the left side away from her leg where it was wet and sticky.

I knew that some of her hysteria was really upset over being taken and what could have happened so I took her into my arms and just held her for a moment.

"I've got you. You're safe. I'll buy you a new pair of shorts, and a shirt and even new shoes if you need some." I assured her. She let me hold her for a few moments as tears rolled down her face as she tried to discreetly wipe and sniff them away. Julie came over and I hugged both of them to me tightly, my own adrenalin still running high. I had to get my family out of this park and get them to safety. We needed to get the whole family back on the jet and out of this state.

I don't know how they found us but they had some magical way of knowing right where we are, when they shouldn't even know what state or city we are in much less that we are at Universal Studios and exactly where in the park we are. Somebody must still have trackers on them, it is the only thing that makes sense. Somehow, I had missed something.

Every single person, every suitcase and everyone's clothing all needed to be scanned again. Then we needed to load them up in the plane, and go where? Hawaii or Texas? All the reservations had already been made for Hawaii but would it be safe? Do we need to go somewhere new? Was my parents house bugged and somehow, they heard where we were going? Were their computers bugged and those goons saw the places we looked up on them? I had to reel my mind in from spinning out of control with crazy possibilities of how they knew where we were and where we were going. Now was not the time to get paranoid.

Focus Carlos. Focus on making sure that everyone is safe and getting the hell out of this fucking park. I knew that theme parks were a bad idea, but when Stephanie asked I just couldn't say no. I keep trying to find ways to make everybody happy and it is putting everyone in danger. I took a deep breath to get my mind and body under control and focused, clearing all of my random thoughts.

It took us almost ten minutes to get back, both my girls a little unsteady on their feet. I seethed in silent anger at the way that these goons had taken six targets, all at once, right in front of five of my men, putting everyone in danger. Once again, I started wondering how the hell had they found us and what they could be using to track us so successfully?

I knew from texts that the men had taken the entire family to the Phineas Q. Butterfat's Ice Cream Parlour to get ice cream and then had them hold up on the second floor of Krusty Burger. I led Stephanie and Julie there. I just needed to talk to my men and then we would break everyone up into their SUV units and get them the hell out of here. I knew instinctively that having everyone in such a large group would be too tempting a target. Eventually 'Springfield' was back in sight and Stephanie and Julie started walking faster.

"Mom." Julie cried out and went running, as she saw her mom being ushered to safety. I knew Bobby had told them all the other women were found unharmed, but in situations like this you worry till you can see for yourself.

When we got upstairs I told Stephanie, "Babe get some ice cream and stay with the family. Ram and Bobby are in charge of you so don't lose them. I need to talk to the other men." She nodded in response.

I walked over to the family to find several of the youngest kids sharing cups of colorful soft serve while the group of boys were tackling larger towers of dipped ice cream cones and sundaes and the girls were satisfied with multicolored ice cream cones. One quick look over the crowd let me know all the women were back and moving around unharmed. I had to find out how they were tracking us because they knew right where we were in the park and were able to take out five of my men and six targets in one swoop.

"Lester, Junior, Sport, Hal, Woody, far wall." I had my arms crossed over my chest with a face that let them know I was pissed and this was not going to be a happy conversation. I led them over to the far corner of the sitting area that was empty and turned to face them.

"Lester, would you please explain how the five of you were put down and six targets were taken?"

"I was guarding with Marc and Sport on one side and Woody was guarding with Tiger on the other. Then Rachel, Leyla, and Julie showed up with Becky, Maggie and Cassie. Now we had six men on one side and five on the other and were scaring away any other women that came along. Marc, Junior and Eddie went to go use the facilities, leaving the three of us guarding. Three janitors who had been working through the area collecting trash came over. I told them they were going to have a long wait because there were a bunch of women inside. They started speaking in Spanish to each other and one went to open the door. I stopped him and told him in Spanish that it would be a while so all three pulled out cigarettes and started smoking and talking to each other. All I remember is them standing ten feet away laughing and pointing at a woman in a small tank top with big boobs, then their radios went off telling them in Spanish to get to work. They started collecting toilet paper and paper towels and walked over to the door. I got between them and the door then one guy acted like he was dropping the rolls and bam I saw a nightstick as it tagged me."

"Junior, report."

"They got Lester and Sport at the same time. I was several feet away when they dropped. I hollered for assistance and tried to hit the alarm button on my phone but all three guys came at me at once. I disarmed one guy, and was fighting the second when I got hit from behind." I was getting angrier that several guys pushing carts and holding toilet paper were able to get the drop on my men.

"Woody, report."

"Same story. Hal and I were guarding the other side when three guys pushing carts and talking in Spanish approached. They lit cigarettes, but over their radios someone told them in Spanish to get to work and they loaded up on toilet paper and walked over like they were going inside so I blocked them. Told them they had to wait and saw the baton. I didn't realize it was a shock baton, I thought he was going to ram me in the gut with it so I grabbed the end and he shocked the hell out of me." Woody held out his hand and I saw the angry red blisters that had formed on his palm.

"Hal, report."

"Well as soon as Woody went down I hollered for assistance as I moved to guard the door and all three of them came at me. I fought with them for a few seconds before one of them tagged me." Hal told me. I took a deep breath and thought carefully about what I needed to say and what my men needed to hear.

"Bathrooms are not cleaned as a group activity," I began." There would only have been one guy cleaning the restrooms. You should have been on high alert when they only showed interest in the women's bathroom and ignored the men's. There are no mats here, so you will each meet me on the sand when we get settled where we are going next. Your asses are only saved because they tried to take the women alive. If they had just gone in and slit everyone's throat they would all be dead. I do not need to reiterate that failure in this mission is not an option." I told them.

"You would all be replaced and on suspension if we were in Trenton, but right now I need every one of you and I need you on your game. They are tracking the women's movements somehow to know that we were here today and know that six of them were in the bathroom together. Stephanie and Julie are primary targets, everyone better be guarding them as if your lives depend on it. (Because they do, was left unsaid.) Collect your targets and consider anyone approaching a threat, even pimply faced, teenaged workers in Universal Studios t-shirts. We are breaking up into family units and returning to the houses. Dismissed." I finished.

I walked back over to the crowd to find half the family was gone. The party with Richard, Diego and the four boys had taken off, as well as the group with my parents, _abuelas_ , Isabella, Angelia and the four smallest children. I immediately texted my men to bring everyone back and prepared to talk to the troupe that was there. Then I waited, looking for Stephanie who was nowhere to be found.

"Where is Stephanie?" I asked the adults.

"Bathroom." Several of my men answered and I walked to the back to find Ram and Bobby standing in the far back corner guarding a door marked WOMEN. I sighed. I know she was all gross from her trip in the garbage cart but I hated having her out of my sight.

Taking a deep breath I addressed the adults that were still there.

"We caught eight men that were here to kidnap the women. Based on what just happened we are leaving now. Everyone is to get into the family units that you rode over with. We will move in small groups back to the exit and return to the safe houses." I announced.

"We can't just leave. We are only a quarter way through the park." Julie demanded.

"Jewels they are tracking you somehow-"

"You already caught the bad guys and took care of them. We are safe now." Oshanna said.

"Uncle Carlos we are planning to go on the Fast and the Furious and Jurassic Park rides." Becky whined.

"Becky, it isn't safe for us to be here any longer." I told her.

Behind me Isabella appeared with Shylia in one hand, and my mother behind her holding onto Ricky.

"Why did we have to come back? The kids want to go on the Simpson's ride." Isabella asked.

"We are leaving. They know where we are and it isn't safe for us to stay here." I explained.

" _Mi'jo_ , the kids just finished lunch. We promised them after lunch they could go on several more rides." My mama said.

"Mama your daughters just got kidnapped. It's not safe. We need to go back to the houses." I was getting desperate. What just happened was my own personal nightmare and I needed everybody safe. I wanted to put everybody on lockdown.

"Nobody got hurt. We are all okay. You caught the bad guys and we have our guards. We will all be safe." Oshanna continued pressing her agenda.

"We can't leave now. Mama and Papa were taking my kids so I could finally ride some rides too." Angelia pleaded.

"They found a way to get men and weapons past the gates. Next time they could come in with an Uzi and mow everybody down including you, your children, your guards, and a lot of innocent bystanders."

"They could do that anyway, even as we are leaving the park. Put a guard on the location that they used to get in and we will know if any more bad guys show up." Layla suggested.

"No, you all agreed that safety is our first priority. It is no longer safe in the park. WE ARE LEAVING." I said emphatically.

"No! We were the ones kidnapped, and we're all fine. You already paid for the passes. We need to enjoy the rest of our day." Oshanna insisted loudly.

"Besides they are going to assume we are headed to the parking lot and be waiting for us. It's safer to stay in the park." Angelia said.

"You don't understand. They know where you are now. The only safe place is out of California. We need to go back to the houses, pack our bags and fly somewhere new."

"Again? I just got our suitcases unpacked and put away." Isabella complained.

"I'll have my men pack for you. We are leaving as soon as I can make arrangements." I told them. Suddenly Stephanie and her guards were there joining the group.

Richard walked in with the boys and Diego trailing behind. "What's going on?" He asked.

"We are leaving. Everyone needs to get back in their family units and stay with their guards."

"Do we really need to leave? There is a lot left that the boys want to do." Diego questioned.

"The men who are after our family know we are here. The park is no longer safe. We need to leave." I told everyone but all I saw was a lot of defiance and determination to stay at the park and have fun. "Papa," I turned to him. "Please tell everyone that it's not safe. That we need to leave." I hated to ask for his help, however I knew my sisters were going to keep arguing with me but would listen to him.

My papa came over to stand next to me. "Has everybody had fun today?" he asked. There were lots of nods and a few yeses. "When we left Newark, you all agreed to trust Carlos to keep you safe. Now despite what has happened you feel safe, like Carlos and his men can protect you or save you no matter what, and you want to keep having fun like nothing has happened. It is very tempting to do but if you trust Carlos, trust him now when he tells you that you are no longer safe and that we need to leave."

"Remember," he continued, "your choices were to get locked away in some safe house, where you would be stuck inside all day unable to go anywhere or come on this trip. We have had a lot of fun this week and gotten to do a lot of things. Where ever we go we will still have some more fun and adventures, but they have found us here in California and now we must listen to Carlos and leave before someone gets hurt." I watched the crowd deflate as he talked, knowing that he was right.

"Everyone please get with your families or whomever you rode with here today. We will go in small groups back to the exit and get loaded up a few at a time." I told everyone. Slowly kids started migrating back towards their parents. Factions dissipated into families.

"Mama, Papa, _Abuelas_ you will leave first with your guards." They nodded to me and followed Gavin, Erik, and Vince out of the door, while Francis, Ian and Manuel waited to shadow closely behind. I waited several minutes, wanting the factions to be close enough to help if there was an emergency but far enough away to get to the vehicles and get loaded before the next group arrived. I looked over the remaining crowd. All of the girls were still eating ice cream.

"Leyla and Richard, you guys are next." They lined their kids up and trailed Tony out the door with Hal following.

Suddenly there were three security guards in sharply pressed blue uniforms, standing at the top of the stairs. "We are sorry folks, but now that you have your ice cream you need to leave." The shortest one with brown hair told us.

"Good afternoon gentlemen." I addressed them. "We are just leaving."

"Well we got a report of a large crowd causing a disturbance. So, you need to break it up and leave now." The oldest of the men, with brown hair and brown eyes and a name tag that read Mr. Alvarez, told us.

"Mr. Alvarez, that is what we are trying to do but as you can see the kids are still sharing their food. As soon as they are done we will be leaving." I explained.

"Julio and Oshanna, you are next. Julio go back to the houses for the rest of today." I was trying to keep the family moving, telling myself that I was not lining them up in the order I would be less hurt if they were attacked, realistically knowing I was saving Julie and Stephanie for last. I knew it was true. I was sending them out like guinea pigs, hoping that any further attacks would happen before Julie and Stephanie walked back through the park. Also knowing I sent my parents and _abuelas_ first because they would be seen as a cluster of targets but they had the most guards and would be the hardest group to take down.

"Sir, your whole family needs to leave and finish eating outside." Mr. Alvarez persisted.

"Do you see all these men in black?" I asked the security guards. "They are professional bodyguards. They are guarding these women. We can't go stand around outside as one big target. We are leaving as small groups to break up the targets and make sure everyone is protected." Two of the guards looked suitably impressed at the number of big men in black, but Mr. Alvarez was not deterred.

"Isabella, Diego, and Angelia, why don't you all go together with the youngest kids." These clusters would be a little closer together but I knew that Angelia without the help of my parents would have problems corralling her little ones alone. "Mr. Alvarez, we are leaving here early because there is a threat to these women in the park. Why don't you and your men give us extra coverage and escort this party to the front gate?"

"Sure, Mike can assist this group. I have to stay until you have all left as there was a complaint made about your family and the noise level." Mr. Alvarez nodded to the short white man with brown hair and a name tag that said Mr. Miller. Then he turned to me. "What is the threat? We need to report these things if there is a problem."

The adults gathered up the little kids and started leaving, each parent holding on to the children's hands.

"This band of women were in the bathroom when they were approached by some men dressed as janitors who attempted to kidnap them. We scared off the men but they made a big mess with trash and rolls of toilet paper and paper towels." I gave him a modified version of events.

"Rachel and Ron wait five minutes then you are next. I'm going to walk this guard over to the bathrooms. Mr. Alvarez can your other guard go with the next group?" He nodded to me and told the next guard, a very Latino looking man with the name Mr. Lopez on his uniform, to go with Rachel and Ron.

"Stephanie, stay here and wait for me." I told her and turned to the guard. "Walk with me." I walked out of the door towards the bathrooms. We arrived to find the paper towels and toilet paper stacked by the door and the garbage bags in a line against the wall.

"We don't know if it was a targeted attack or something random. We aren't taking any chances which is why we are leaving. Several men dressed in janitorial outfits, pushing carts of supplies and trash showed up and threw stuff at my men and tried to grab the women. These are the garbage bags and paper products they threw." I pointed at the piles. "My men, of course, chased them off and they left the mess behind."

"If you come down to the office we can write up an official report." Mr. Alvarez told me.

"We aren't going to be here that long. I just wanted you to know you had a problem with men either impersonating your workers or workers who have gone off the rail." I turned around to head back to the family and Mr. Alvarez stopped me.

"Really if your men were attacked we need to fill out a report." He insisted.

"Sorry," I told him. "We are leaving the park. We can't let our names be used in any report either inhouse or by the police if you catch these guys." I turned and walked back as he stayed surveying the situation probably trying to imagine what happened. I got back to find Stephanie with a tower of ice cream delight in front of her.

"What is that Babe?" I asked her.

"It's the Brain Freeze D'oh Nut Sundae. I don't know why I never thought of this, but it is two of my favorite desserts in one. Can you imagine anything better?" She smiled brightly up at me. Yes, yes, I could imagine a lot of foods I crave and would eat before this atrocity. I thought that the vanilla soft serve with strawberry and chocolate syrup topped by a large glazed donut with thick pink frosting, crowned with whipped topping, nuts and a large cherry sounded like the last thing I would ever want to eat. The Taliban could add this to their list of ways to torture soldiers. I wonder how many days of starvation it would take before I could consider consuming such a monstrosity while Stephanie was so enthusiastic she looked like she just found the holy grail.

"Babe, can you bring it to go. It's time for us to get out of here." She nodded and stood moaning with a big bite of donut in her mouth. _Dios_ , eating next to her was one of my favorite things. She makes every meal an orgasmic experience and arouses most men that are unfortunately caught within hearing distance of her force field. I forced myself to focus on the task at hand even though I would much rather get lost in her sounds of pleasure.

Bobby went first. Stephanie and I followed with Ram walking behind. I know that Marc is already out in the parking lot directing my family into their vehicles while Tiger was waiting for me to join their group, probably working with the Trenton office and local maps to find a suitable debriefing location for us. I walked by Stephanie as she moaned her way through what she thought of as a delightful dessert and I couldn't help but smile inside. After being kidnapped and stunned, if a little treat took her mind off things it was worth its weight in gold.

We got out to the SUVs and I saw the two white vans sitting idling in the loading zone 50 feet from the entrance. I walked Stephanie out to her SUV, gave her a deep kiss, full-body hug and got her loaded up. Marc, who had been standing outside the vehicle waiting for us, was now in the driver's seat.

"Start packing when you get back to the house, Babe. I'll be there as soon as I am done." I told her as I rearmed myself with my full gun belt, knife, and second ankle gun.

"I thought you were coming with me. What are you going to be doing?" She asked still dabbling with the remains of her dessert.

"We caught a few of the men that took you. I'm going to be asking them some questions and then turning them over to the police with enough drugs on them that they won't be getting out of prison for a very long time."

"Oh, I thought you would torture them to death." Well, yeah that is the plan, but I don't need to encourage anyone in my family into thinking that I kill indiscriminately. These guys signed their own paychecks the minute they teamed up to kidnap my women.

"No Babe, that's only in the movies. We are just going to threaten and scare them a lot. Like with Anton. We don't have to get real physical to loosen their tongues. Stay with Marc, Ram and Bobby. Marc is in charge of you till I get back." She nodded her consent to me and put her seatbelt on. I closed the door and stood back waiting for the caravan to leave, pleased that Marc had already sent four of the SUVs ahead in a small group.

I jogged back to the front white van and got into the passenger side. As soon as I was inside I texted Skylar. _'Bad guys found us again. How soon can we get the plane readied for take-off? What locations do we have left that are viable for a week?'_ I didn't want to talk to Skylar in front of Tiger and honestly, I was too pissed off that we were found again to make sappy sweet talk with her at the moment.

"Have all of our guests been made comfortable?" I asked Tiger as he pulled out towards the exit. He nodded in return.

"Do we have a debriefing location?" I questioned. He handed me his phone and pointed to a line of warehouses. My phone started ringing and as it was Skylar, I silenced it sending a quick text that I was unable to talk at the moment.

"You searched the vans?" I asked. He nodded pointing to a bag that sat on the seat between us filled with wallets, IDs, phones and guns. "There are more than eight wallets and IDs in here." I noted, counting fourteen. He nodded again.

"Under their clothes they were wearing gang colors and covered in tats." He informed me. "Looks like Varrio Nuevo Estrada with ties to the Mexican Mafia."

"That's why we left. They may have thought they were going in stealthily by leaving their guns in the car, but they could have come back and sprayed the place. It looks like we barely got half of them."

My phone became very active with various text messages telling me that Texas and Hawaii were still available and that the cruise in Hawaii was ready and paid for. She had reserved all the rooms at the end of one hallway. The cruise left on Saturday, early boarding available at ten. The pilots were in the area and could get to the airport within an hour. The plane was already fueled in preparation for the trip to Hawaii tomorrow. They only had to go through the pre-flight check and would be ready to go. She hadn't heard back from Sabine, but that we could proceed without her if needed.

I let her know to set up the flight, we would take the Hawaiian cruise, and book two nights somewhere safe outside of California, but not Hawaii. I then texted to not even tell me where we were going, to email and text once she had it set up and that it would be a couple of hours before we were ready to leave so there was no need to rush anyone.

Fifteen minutes later Tiger pulled up in front of a Home Depot and we got supplies. Two hundred feet of rope, two rolls of duct tape, a long two by four cut into three foot lengths, a six pack of Coke and a twelve pack of water.

We got back to the van that was parked isolated out in the back part of the lot with Zip and Zero standing guard. I opened the back of the van to find all eight men, gagged, hogtied and piled on top of each other. I carelessly threw the two-by-fours on top of them, causing a few grunts and groans, knowing they were going to get much more closely acquainted with them very soon.

When we got to the row of abandoned, rusted out, old steel warehouses we surveyed the situation and decided the middle warehouse provided the most privacy for our purpose. We drug each of the men by their shirts out to the middle of the floor and strung up some rope. Their gags were removed and mouths filled with a wad of duct tape and then taped back closed.

I didn't have time to play with them, giving a fifteen second deal: money and survival to the first man willing to talk. They all looked at each other and gave cold, soulless, death glares to me. We strung them up, three feet apart, so that their taped together feet were firmly on the floor but they had to stand up straight and then spent time alternating between shocking them with their own batons and playing piñata. I quickly identified the weaker members who were most likely to talk.

They were becoming tenderized and ready to tell me what I needed to know. From experience I have learned that it is worth it to totally break a man before questioning starts so once they start talking they are willing to spill their guts. When two were crying and moaning constantly I knew we were making progress. Tiger and I took the first one down and put him in the back of a van. Cutting the flexicuffs off his hands and offering him a bottle of Coke. After several minutes I learned his name was FunIKey and started questioning him.

"Funikey? What kind of name is that?"

"I take care of da bitches. I am Fun-I-Key. I am da Key to all the'r Fun." He bragged.

"You are the key to the fun for all the bitches?" I clarified.

"Hey I may not looks like a'lot. I'm a little guy buts I be swingin' a big bat n' all da bitches love me."

"Why were you in the park today trying to kidnap these women?" I asked.

"Days ago Snapps, one of da leaders, was approach'd n' offered $100,000 fur each live woman we captur'd at Universal Studios. He's told to gets a ten-man crew, one fur each of da women n' cause I'm such a sweet talker n' woo the ladies I gots pick'd too."

"So how were you planning on doing it?"

"We was told we couldn't bring any guns in da park, theys would draw too much attention. Dat we's had to go in a hidd'n back way, all stealth and James Bond like. We had to cover up our clothes n' our tats. No ones could know we was da Varrio Nuevo Estrada. Once we'd agreed to da job a package come with maps of da area's n' roads surround'n da park n' ten black stun thingies. Wednesday, we comes to da park to check da situation out. We follow'd one of da roads on da map n' found da exits used by da janitorial staff to take out da garbage n' decided dat was da way to gets in n' out. Den we went n' bought tan outfits to wears. Had to bes shirts with buttons n' collars, n' pants with pockets."

"How did you know who you were supposed to kidnap?"

"Where's me phone? Snapps sent us alls a file with alls da womans listed." I fished through the bag and pulled out the phones, dumping them in a pile next to him and he dug one out that had a blue cover with a dragon on it. He tapped away for a moment then handed me the phone. "See d'ese two," scrolling through the photos to find Stephanie and Julie, "Day's are worth half a millions each. I don't know what chu are being paid to guard dem, but it can'ts be as much. Da other eight women are worth one hundr'd tousand each. Two n' a half mill fo all ten." He told me.

"We 're will'n to make a deal with chu guys." He continued. "Chu give us da women, we turn dem over n' split da reward money with chu guys. If chu can cut out part of your crew dat would be a mill and quart'r for just a few of chu's. Try making dat in a year." He grinned his split swollen lips at me. "Bud the bitches gots to be in good shape. We'd only gets paid if the women are alive n' unharmed."

"I'll have to think about it." I said.

Quick math showed that those six women were worth 1.4 million dollars to these guys.

"What time did you guys make it to the park this morning? I asked.

"We gots theres befor' eleven n' split up, spreadin' out in pairs, dividin' up da park. We actually brought fifteen guys. The two waitin' in da vans n' thirteen spread thru out da park." He explained. "Da tan clothes were our disguise to cover up our gang colors and ink. We alls knows dat if'n the security gets a look ad us with our ink, colors n' attitudes we woulds get'n immedat'ly escort'd outta da park. We didn't take in no guns or ID's so if'n we got caught we couldn't be charged with nothin'. We'd just lie about our identity n' we an't done nothin' wrong so we go free."

"What happened after you got to the park? How did you find the group?"

"When we gots to da park we spreads out all over but we'd could't find da women. Sos Snapps tells us he gots it cover'd. We were all on da twitter feed n' it started goin' off. Sos we walk'd around collectin' trash n' acting all unnotic'd 'til we gots a tex with a pictur in front of da Krusty burger. Then da twitter lady answer'd dat ya'll weres at lunch."

I was astonished as he showed me the text and it was a forwarded Instagram of Oshanna and Julio with Homer Simpson standing in front of the Krusty Burger. He also showed me a twitter feed of 'ThreadLady214' he was following that at 12:27 said she was at Krusty Burger having lunch with her whole family. As I read, a burning desire to strangle my sister began to build when it became obvious that she was posting her way through her 'vacation' leading the bad guys straight to us.

TBC…

A/N: Thank you all for your reviews! I posted one day early just for you First Generation Scot. Thanks for all your great reviews Vulcan Rider, Buddy's Babe, Angela Muller, trhodes09, shellbell78, the newest daughter, GarbonzoBeans, Babealways, aruvqan, baileygirl12. Candie Marie that was probably my shortest and yet my best review, Thanks! Thanks to all my guest reviewers too! They are all appreciated!

They found everybody safe and got them out of the park. Most importantly now Ranger has found the leak and who has been giving their location away. What to do with his sister now? Please read and review.

As always big THANK YOU to my beta Sassysaint.

Second Big THANK YOU to my sister, Jonelle. Thank you for fixing all my many little mistakes.

Ranger's Family Album

Mother's Mother – Abuela Rosa, Father's Mother – Abuela Sanja Manoso

Mother – Maria Father – Javier

Siblings and family in age order

Leyla (35) & Richard Gonzales– Rebecca (Becky) 12, Margaret (Maggie) 10, Richard (Ricky) 7, Michael (Mikie) 5

Angelia (34) & Jordan White – Shanna 5 – Kendrick (Ricky) 3

Ricardo Carlos Manoso (32)– Ranger

Julio Manoso (30) Ex Allysa – Jacob 2

Isabella (27) & Diego Diaz – Chris 8, Shylia 6, Parker 3

Oshanna Manoso (22)

Rachel & Ron – Julie 12, Fredrico (Freddie) 9, Cassandra (Cassie) 6

Trenton & Miami Merry Men Assignments (33 Men)

Abuela Sanja – Vince, Ian

Abuela Rosa – Manuel, Gavin

Maria – Erik, Francis

Leyla – Hal, Tony

Angelia – Woody, Dillion

Isabella – Cal, Red

Oshanna – Lester, Sport

Rachel – Eddie, Pace

Julie – Junior, Scott

Stephanie – Ranger, Marc, Tiger

Extra's – Bobby, Ram, Zero, Zip

Night's – Chet, Chester, Gino, Mario, Ryan, Ramon, Billy, Cade, Simon


	22. Chapter 22 Rooting Out the Mole

Chapter 22 Rooting out the Mole

 _I was astonished as he showed me the text and it was a forwarded Instagram of Oshanna and Julio with Homer Simpson standing in front of the Krusty Burger. He also showed me a Twitter feed of 'ThreadLady214' he was following that at 12:27 said she was at Krusty Berger having lunch with her whole family. As I read, a burning desire to strangle my sister began to build when it became obvious that she was posting her way through her 'vacation' leading the bad guys straight to us._

I started scrolling through all the tweets Oshanna had been posting this week. I wanted to yell and throw this phone as far as I could. I wanted to grab each end and break the damn thing in half. I wanted to strangle this kid that had so much information. I clamped down tightly on my emotions, focusing on the goal of getting as many of the facts as possible and not splintering the phone I held into tiny pieces. Anger, I reminded myself was not a productive emotion.

As I looked back at the Twitter feed this week there was a constant stream of posts including one on Monday that proclaimed we were heading to California and later that night that the whole family was going to Universal Studios on Thursday. Then there were posts and pictures all day from the L.A. Star tour, multiple posts from the fashion trip, and several posts from our night at the comedy club and dance club.

I was honestly surprised that we weren't assaulted sooner on this trip. Of course, they knew we were all going to be at Universal Studios on Thursday. They wanted to get as many women as possible and knew that it was the one-time Julie and Stephanie were going to be at the same place and would become somewhat attainable targets.

This morning, probably during the drive, she posted _'Excited…on our way to Universal Studios Theme Park.'_ At 11:34 and 11:38 she got tweets from two different 'friends' asking where she was and what she was doing. At 12:18 she posted the Instagram and at 12:27 tweeted that they were taking a break splitting a Clogger burger at Krusty Burger with her sister and whole family. We were going to have to scrub these accounts and find out who was playing her.

I went back in time to the beginning of this mess, skimming through her tweets, and saw where she had been posting the whole trip. Starting last Wednesday that her life was in danger so the whole family was going away to some place safe. Thursday where she posted a picture of the Concorde and that we were headed to Miami. Friday when she posted we were at the zoo. Then later that we were leaving to go on a cruise.

Sunday where she posted pictures of us and the cabanas on the island. Monday when she posted that we had been attacked on the island and had to leave but that we were going to California. Monday night when she posted that she had boring tours the beginning of the week but Thursday she was going with the family to Universal Studios. Shockingly, when they asked where she was staying, she had answered right on the beach with a pretty picture of the ocean but no mention or pictures of the houses.

More than half her tweets were responses to several different women that were especially active. Every day asking her what she was doing and where she was at. I wanted to beat her black, blue and bloody. I wanted to go back into that warehouse and swing a two by four until there was nothing left of these 'men'. I wanted to strangle each man, one at a time with my bare hands.

As hard as I was working to keep our location a secret, Oshanna was working just as hard posting our location as soon as we arrived, many times before we had even left. It was no wonder that they were right behind us, finding us every step of the way.

I was going to send her away. Far away from the family. Lock her up in a safe house in Trenton and let her rot with no phone, computer or TV. No communication and no contact with anyone, just some books or magazines for her to read. Order one of her bodyguards to stay in the room with her at all times but not talk to her at all. It would drive her nuts and within days she would be going almost as crazy as she has driven me.

Finally, I pulled myself enough together to ask him some more questions. "So, let's say we give you all the women. How were they to be delivered and how are you communicating with the money man?" I continued to question the boy.

"I don't know nothin' 'bout dat. Snapps' doin' all da communicatin'."

"When and where are the women to be delivered?" I tried again.

"Tonights when wes were suppos'd to get our money 'sall I know."

"Which is Snapps phone, gun and ID?" I asked him dumping the IDs where he could reach and laying out the guns along the side of the van out of his reach.

"Snapps is Julio Rodriguez. His's da black phone with da skull. I don't knows whats he was carryin' today. His piece's usually a black gripp'd .45 but I don't see it here."

"Thank you for all your help. FunIKey. You get to keep your Coke." I told him as I tied his hands in front of him, cut the tape around his ankles and walked him back in with his drink, sitting him on the floor against the wall.

I didn't expect to get anything easily out of Snapps. I used my fists instead of a two by four to tenderize him and his lead men. Really I was just working off my anger and stopped when Tiger got my attention and nodded to the guy that looked barely conscious. I offered Snapps a deal to talk. He nodded his assent and we carried him out to the van. We tied his hands in front of him and handed him a Coke. He took it and began to drink pretending not to know any English till I told him FunIKey already sold him out and I knew he understood me.

"When and where are the women to be delivered?" I asked him.

"I don't know nothin' 'bout no bitches. I was just hangin' outside waitin' fur my homies to gets back."

"What were your 'homies' doing inside wearing costumes and carrying police stun batons?"

"I don't know whats' dey be doin'. I was just drivin' the van n' dey tolds me wheres to go n' to wait fur dem."

"Will you unlock your phone for me?" I asked holding his phone out to him.

"Dats ain't my phone." He declared. I socked him right in the nuts and he bent forward holding on to himself.

"What is the code to unlock your phone?" After waiting a few moments I asked again.

"I lefts my phone at home." He defiantly said and I hit him again in his groin and he rocked forward to cover himself, dropping the Coke. I picked the Coke back up off the ground and sat it next to him. Then I nodded to Tiger who grabbed his hands and pinned them at the top of the van.

"We can do this all day." I told him. "How many times of me hitting you before your equipment won't work right anymore?" I asked and then I hit him again. A few more well place love taps to his personal club and balls, or in his case a stubby pencil and erasers and I got his phone code out of him.

"4322 unlocks da phone." He told me. I started going through all the phone calls and texts he had received in the past several days. I noticed an out of state number that had called four times in the last three days and sent several texts.

"Is this the number of the guy that offered you the deal for the women?"

"I don't knows nuttin 'bout no deals over some bitches."

"Snapps, let's get real. You threatened my women. I am happy hitting you all day long. In fact, every time I hit you I feel a little bit better." I popped him in the eye. "If I have to I will string you back up, break both your legs and keep hitting you until most of your ribs are broken as well and it hurts so bad to breathe you will be thankful when I fill you full of lead from your own gun." I hit him in the gut. "Before we get that far, I strip you naked, tape your legs up with two-by-fours so you can stand on your broken ass legs. Then we work you over with a rope tied to your dick and yank on it repeatedly until you tell me what I want to know. It's that or you accept that I'm going to get my answers now and start cooperating." Then I grabbed his nuts and pulled and twisted till he screamed in pain.

"Yes," his voice was a horse whisper. "Dat's da number. He saids his name was Ricardo Carlos Manoso. He saids dere's a big rewards fur da women. Two n' a half mills fur all ten. Dat da women were all goings to be at da theme park on Thursda' n' we had two days to prepares."

"Where were you to take the women once you got them?"

"We was to text him whos we gots n' meet him at ten t'night at a old abandon'd airstrip outside of da town."

I took his phone and he had all the same information that Funikey had but he had the actual Instagram account open. Threadlovr214 posted lots of pictures. Over 35 pictures of LA from the first day's tour, over 50 outfits the second day when they went on the fashion tour. Oshanna was more active here than on Twitter as a picture of an outfit makes more sense than trying to describe it on Twitter. I signaled to Tiger that we were done here and walked off, leaving my men to have the pleasure of finishing this paint job.

While I waited I called Hector to put a trace on the unknown phone number. He did some research and came back on the line to tell me it was an untraceable satellite phone. Then I made a few calls to my associates to see if they would play gangstar with us tonight and pretend to have kidnapped and sell the women. Once they agreed I texted the number, from Snapps' phone saying we got six of the women and wanted to make the drop. The number responded with the address for the airport.

I texted Skylar to put a hold on the plane, that we would be staying the night because I found the leak and the houses were still safe. Then I called Marc.

"Collect everyone's phones, tablets and computers. Start with Oshanna, Angelia and Julio. Make sure they have nothing electronic that can connect to the outside world between them. Oshanna is the leak. On her phone you will find she has been posting every move we've made on her Twitter and Instagram. Contact Hector and have him sanitize her accounts. She has some questionable friends that have been closely following her this past week. Repeatedly asking her for information on where she is and what she and her family are doing."

"Check all accounts for any profiles that may have South American origins. Tell everyone to pack to leave tomorrow. We are not leaving tonight. The houses have not been compromised so for now they are safe. The drop for the women is to be at 22:00 at an airstrip south of the city. I'm thinking of getting some decoys and trying to pull it off to see if we can't get Boris out of his hidey hole. We're on our way back. ETA forty-five."

Five minutes later we were on our way with all the tape, rope and the two by fours in the back. While we drove, I discussed the plan with Tiger.

"We could get some hookers, dress them in the clothes the women were wearing today. Dress up the men that will fit in these tan outfits and hire a few guys I know to pose with us as gangbangers. Meet up at the airport with assault rifles and take them down."

"If they knew we were at Universal Studios today what would have stopped someone from following the women back to the houses?" Tiger questioned me.

"The men were watching for a tail. Anyone following that long, especially through the gated neighborhood, would have been spotted. There was nothing in any of her posts that said anything about where we were staying in California."

One quick stop to a dumpster fifteen minutes away and we got rid of all the evidence, IDs, phones and guns. A fast bathroom break to clean up and we were on our way. The next twenty-five minutes were quiet as we drove in our respective zones. Me planning out the attack tonight, as well as how I was going to bring up Oshanna's betrayal to the family. She was the baby and Mama and Papa spoiled her more than the rest of us. They will try to minimize what she has done and make excuses for her so this will be an exercise in stealthy manipulation that I am looking forward to.

When I arrived at the houses I met with Marc and Tiger to find out what Hector had determined about the accounts.

"I have six men going through everyone's phones making sure they are all clean and Hector has scrubbed both the Twitter and Instagram accounts. So far Hector has found four fake accounts following her Twitter account and three her Instagram, all using different names and profiles, most with Colombian IP addresses and phone numbers. Three of them are from the same IP address. A little more time and Hector will have specific street addresses but he thinks the three are Sergio's southern compound. He told me that the untraceable satellite number you gave him is one of her friends on both accounts and is very active asking her everyday where she is and what she is doing on her trip." Marc brought me up to speed.

"How long ago did they start targeting her?" I asked.

"The oldest two started talking to her over three months ago and she started following them and having them follow her two months ago. The most recent one, is that phone number and she just accepted it last week." He told me.

"Damn!" I exclaimed. They were using her and she was letting them in, giving them direct access and telling them everything they wanted to know.

"You're not going to like this but you have to cancel any plans for tonight. Your cover is blown and it is probably going to be an ambush. When I found Oshanna and went to confiscate her phone she was answering a Tweet asking what she did the rest of her day at the park. She had just tweeted about the attempted kidnapping, the rescue and was on to bitching that you were so mean you made everyone leave the park." He explained.

"Fuck!" I was pissed as I paced away from him several feet and then walked back. It was the one hope I had for finding the guy, possibly named Boris, who was here in the US leading the assault to get my women.

"Thanks Marc. And thanks for getting everyone back home. Any chance that either caravan was followed from the park?" I knew my men would have been on high alert but I had to ask.

"No. Everyone was watching for a tail. If we got followed it would have been from the park to the highway. No one followed us after we got on the highway, the men made sure of it."

I nodded my head at him. "Once all the electronics are checked I want them all downstairs on the kitchen table so anyone who is clean can pick theirs back up. Let me know immediately if any of the other phones or electronics come up tainted." I told him. He nodded and went back to the middle house where the men were dissecting everyone's electronics again.

I woke five of the night crew up early for coverage so all my day shift men could be at the meeting. Chester, Chet, and Gino were assigned to the fronts of the houses, Billy and Cade were assigned to the beaches, all of them carrying LSATs for greatest range and firepower. Then I texted all the adults and the rest of my men that we were having an emergency meeting in fifteen minutes in the first house and for all the children to be brought to the den to watch a movie while the parents had a conversation.

Then I went upstairs to find Stephanie who was busy packing her suitcase.

"Babe" I took her in my arms and just held her for a few minutes. She hugged me back and I breathed in her scent, strawberry citrus surprise. I found that having her in my arms was really helping to calm me down even as I started reacting to her physically.

"How did the interrogation go?" she asked me, pulling away.

"Extremely productive." I cryptically answered as I pulled her down on the bed to sit on my lap, wrapping my arms loosely around her.

"So, you figured out who is after us and why?"

"We know that Sergio is behind the whole mess. But today was very enlightening."

"What does that mean?"

"It means that now we know how they have been tracking and finding us. More importantly we now know who's leaking the information to the bad guys." I explained in more detail. She pulled out of my arms to face me holding my hands in hers.

"So, who's leaking the information?"

"If I tell you now, can you pretend in front of the group that you don't know?" I asked her.

"Of course. I'll be just as shocked as everyone else."

"Babe, you understand that this person has personally cost me over $150,000? By the time it is all said and done it will be over $225,000. That this person has put not only yours and Julie's lives in danger but the lives of all the women and all my men who would sacrifice themselves and take a bullet to save each of you."

"Okay."

"You understand that instead of us relaxing on a tropical island; we keep having to pack up and run for our lives? That my men had to risk getting shot to catch the attackers that came to the island with machine guns intent on killing as many people as possible and kidnapping you and Julie. Which would have ended with your deaths."

"So, who is it?" She pleaded.

"I'm getting there. You understand that today, if they were supposed to kill you instead of kidnap you; five of my men would have died as well as you, Julie, three of my sisters, Rachel and all of the kids that were in that bathroom?" I continued then I paused. "So I need your opinion… what kind of punishment should this person get who is knowingly posting our family's whereabouts and activities publicly for the bad guys to read and follow?" I asked her.

"Posting? Like on Facebook?"

"Yes, actually on Twitter. Where some of the people they have friended are fake profiles and are really the bad guys probing for information."

"They are posting where we are and what we are doing?" She questioned.

"Yes, with pictures." I told her.

"And they know they aren't supposed to be telling anyone where we are?"

"Directly and specifically they were told not to tell anyone outside of this group where we are going. Not friends, coworkers, spouses, boyfriends, or girlfriends. Not over the phone, by text, email, Facebook or any other social media. They were not to tell anyone outside of my parents' house. Not directly or even little hints. No matter what they were supposed to keep it a secret, just like everybody on this trip." I clarified.

"I don't know? Take them out back and shoot them? Seriously though if they are telling the bad guys where we are or are going then they have to be kept out of the loop."

"…and if they are on the trip with us how do I do that? Lie to everyone what state and city we are in? Shouldn't I send them back home and put them under guard in a safehouse for the safety of you, my men and my entire family?"

"Is it Julie?" She asked earnestly. "Or Becky? or Maggie?"

"You would think that it would have to be someone like that. Too young to know better."

"Oh Carlos, I don't know just tell me." She said huffily.

"It's Oshanna."

"Oshanna?"

"Yes, she has been posting to her friends on Twitter and Instagram where we are and what we are doing every single day. Today she posted a picture of herself with Julio at Universal Studios. Then tweeted about where the whole family was having lunch. That's after she posted several days ago on Twitter that on Thursday the whole family was going to Universal Studios. It gave them days to prepare."

"To go to the theme park and do recon." I continued. "Time to figure out the best way to get you out of the park, and find the back roads that only the garbage trucks drive on. To put together a crew, get the janitorial costumes and the stun batons. They had two whole days to prepare and then once they were in the park this morning they spread out looking for us." I was practically shaking in rage again.

"When they didn't find us right away; they had someone tweet her and ask her where she was and what she was doing. She ices the Fuck Carlos Cake by telling them exactly where in the park the whole family was having lunch." My hands were tight fists again in my lap, aching with the need to hit something and I knew I had to have better control in front of my family and men. Stephanie put her hands on my fists and cried out, lifting each fist to inspect them more closely.

"Your hands are all torn up and bleeding. Is this how you did your persuading today?" She asked dragging me over to the bathroom sink to wash my hands again.

"Actually, I only punched the guy a couple of times before he spilled everything. The problem was after I found out what has been going on I lost it and beat the crap out of several of them." I sighed. "They deserved it and more for what they were going to do to you, Julie, my sisters and Rachel. But honestly when I found out about the leak I wanted to come back here and tear her a new one, take her apart piece by piece. Babe, I wanted to beat the living shit out of her."

"Now you have to know I would never hit any woman, at any time, ever. And never a woman in my family. But I wanted to come back here and take her apart." I took a deep breath. I dried my hands knowing they were still bleeding from several knuckles and that, besides removing the dried blood, washing them didn't make them look any better than before. Still red, raw, swollen and bleeding.

"Where are some Band-Aids? Do I need to get Bobby?" She asked me.

I went to my bag in the closet and got out three Band-Aids. She quickly took them from me and put them on my bleeding knuckles. Now these were just regular cloth Band-Aids so I knew they wouldn't stay on my hands very long but hopefully they would stay long enough to stop the bleeding.

"Come on we have a party to go to downstairs and everybody is invited." I took her hand and led her out the door and down the stairs. I was pleased to note that most of my family was already in the great room and I wondered if this was the right way to handle this. Outing her in front of the family instead of just whisking her away and locking her up somewhere. That might work for the short term but Mama wouldn't understand why she couldn't call her and she would get mad at me and get Papa involved and they would both disapprove. No, this was the only way it could work; to have a group discussion and group agreement about the punishment.

I walked in and addressed everyone. "Good evening. I see everyone is here but Angelia." (as usual) "Rachel and Ron, Leyla and Richard this is a very important discussion that I think Julie, Becky and Maggie should be a part of. Do you mind if I go get them?" They all nodded their consent and as I walked into the den I found Angelia was there trying to get her little ones settled.

"Julie, Becky, Maggie, we are going to have a very adult conversation about the cell phones and since you each have one I would like you to be involved. Would you come out to the living room and join us?" All three of them nodded and I waved my arm to let them pass in front of me as I followed them back into the living room.

The room was packed with twenty-four of my men lining all the walls in rows of two and three. My _abuelas_ , parents, and half of my siblings filled up the extra-large sectional. Rachel, Ron, Richard, Diego and Isabella were at the dining room table, where Angelia joined them. Julie and the girls opened the back patio and brought in three of the patio chairs that they lined up in a row in front of my men.

"Everyone please get comfortable. Pull up a dining room chair, pull up a patio chair, pull up some rug. These floors are pretty clean and we haven't gotten them very dirty while we have been here." I paused looking around the room. "We are here tonight to discuss a very important topic. Our safety." I started.

"This whole trip has been about the threat against all the women in my life, including Julie, Rachel and Stephanie. Julie, Becky and Maggie I asked you to join us because this is an important discussion, but we are going to be talking about some very uncomfortable and not nice things that happen in the world to innocent people so if you want to leave please feel free." All the girls shook their heads at me.

"We started this trip watching a video that was left for me. A video where they tied a woman up, beat her, tortured her and stabbed her. She died from her wounds. That video was left for me, telling me specifically that this and worse would happen to all the women in my life." I paused for dramatic effect and looked around the room making direct eye contact with my mother and each of my sisters.

"To keep this from happening we decided the best course of action was to get everyone together and go away. Somewhere safe, somewhere no one knows where we are. To keep us safe each member of my family was told in no uncertain terms that they were not to tell anyone where we were going. That only people going on the trip were to know. Not Angelia's husband, not boyfriends, girlfriends, work friends, or friend friends. Not your Facebook buddies, women in your play group or yoga class. No one outside of this room was to know where we were going."

"Yet everywhere we have gone the bad guys kept showing up. Within hours of us leaving for Miami the known bad guys, that we had tracked down, left on a rented airplane that was later found in Miami. I planned for us to be hidden away on an unknown island for two weeks. Trust me, paying for forty-seven people to go on a cruise and then spend two weeks in a tropical paradise was not cheap. But to me it was worth it. I would pay whatever amount of money I needed to pay to make sure my family was safe from these animals."

"We were on an island with no trace of how we got there. If the bad guys figured out we were on the cruise, it would take a week for the boat to get back before they knew we were no longer on it. We should have been good and safe. Able to relax and have fun for a while before we had to worry about hired guns getting a whiff about where we were."

"But surprisingly not two whole days after being on the island three attackers armed with machine guns showed up in the middle of the night and tried to kill my men. Their orders were to kill as many people in my family and my men as they could and kidnap Julie and Stephanie."

"Now what were they planning on doing to Julie and Stephanie? Throw them a party? No, they have promised to do to them what they did to that woman but worse and this story ends with them being very dead. So, we all get back on a plane and fly here to California. Where again nobody knows where we are so we should be safe. But somehow the bad guys knew right where to find us. They had forewarning of our trip to the theme park so instead of chasing us all week, they sat back and spent several days planning today's attack."

"Now that everyone is safe and uninjured, you may think it doesn't matter. But what if their orders had been different and instead of stun batons they showed up with knives or guns? At least five of my men would be dead. Lester, Woody, Hal, Sport and Junior come up here." The men slowly got out from behind the men standing around them and made their way to stand behind me.

"These men, these hard-working loyal men would all be dead. Does everyone here understand that each of my men are totally dedicated to this job and to you?" I paused, taking a deep breath. "They will do everything they physically can do to keep you safe including laying down their lives to protect yours. There is nothing that any of my men wouldn't do for each of you." I saw Angelia roll her eyes.

"Nothing that they won't do to protect you, Angelia. For this job, babysitting is not one of their job descriptions. Their job is to keep you safe so you can watch your own babies. For today and all the years to come. Most of us expect to watch our children grow up. We expect to be around to raise our children and eventually our grandchildren and if we are really lucky our great-grandchildren."

"Today could have been devastating for everyone in this room. If your attackers were told to kill instead of stun and kidnap we would be having very different and difficult discussions right now. Ron and Richard would be planning funerals for their wives and at least one child each. All while figuring out how they were suddenly going to raise the rest of their kids as single parents. And it could have been worse, both of them had at least one more child in that room that could have been hurt or killed. Thankfully today they were left alone. But if they had come in with guns there's no telling who they would have shot."

"Jordan, Angelia's husband would be trying to arrange for his wife's funeral and possibly both of his kids long distance. If these dangerous men had come in to kill the women they attacked, six of you would be dead. You wouldn't be here to raise your kids, take care of your husbands. Get your kids through school and college. See them get married, have careers and eventually children of their own."

"Mama would have lost three of her daughters and at least two grandchildren. If the bad guys had come in with guns and fired indiscriminately, she could have lost five grandchildren. Our _abuelas_ would lose three granddaughters, two great granddaughters and up to five great grandchildren."

"I would have lost my fiancé, my only child, three sisters and Rachel who has been a wonderful woman in my life and a wonderful mother to my daughter, and if you don't think that wounds me," my voice got really husky and thick as I fought my overwhelming emotions, "you don't know me or understand how much I love each of you and how much I would give to keep everyone here safe."

"To keep everyone here safe I offered to take you all away. Pay for round the clock protection. Double bodyguards anytime you leave the safety of these houses. Fly you around in a private jet. Take you to undisclosed locations. Provide everyone with secure credit cards and fake IDs. Provide secure untraceable internet so you and your kids can use your electronics. Provide everyone with secured phones that you can use to contact each other. If this threat had been against anyone else I would have simply sent them to a safe house and been done with it. I wouldn't care if they were entertained or happy. You are my family so I chose not to just lock you all away. I chose to keep you safe _and_ entertained at the same time."

I took a deep breath. "Those phones that I provided have come in real handy for us to keep track of each other while we are out. Like today, getting everybody hooked back up so we could have lunch together."

"But we have a severe problem. Even though I specifically told everyone in my family that they can't contact anyone outside of this room, somebody has been doing it. I need to know what should be done with someone who not only has been contacting people outside of this room. They are telling them exactly what we are doing and where we are hiding. They have not just been telling friends but the direct enemy, the men who are trying to hurt, torture and kill you. And not just once or twice but on a daily basis since this started last Wednesday. Worse yet they are having conversations with the enemy so if perchance on a particular day they have not given up our location all the enemy has to do is contact them, ask where they are and they happily tell them."

"Marc what do I do to traitors on the job?"

"Beat the hell out of them, fire their asses and ruin their careers. That's all if they are lucky."

"I'll also take them for every penny that they are worth, because most of the time when someone sells out it is for money. But this traitor is not doing it for money, even though every time they do it, it costs me a hell of a lot of money. So far, this person has cost me over $200,000. That's not nearly the total amount of money I'm spending, that's the extra amount that it is costing me to keep this party moving one step ahead of the bad guys."

"That is just the money that's been spent since having to leave the island. Where we only got to stay two days, and can't get any of that money back. It is a rough estimate of everything I have had to spend since Monday till we get back home next week. I paid for our accommodations here for a full week even though we're only here a few days. All of it completely non-refundable for sixty different people."

"So, what should we do to this person who is callously breaking the rules and threatening the lives of everyone in this room?"

"Mama?"

"Kick them out, send them home. Don't let them know where we are?"

"Ron and Rachel?"

"Leave them behind so if the bad guys want someone they can take them." Ron said. "I'm not trying to be mean but this is my family on the line too and it's my job to protect them."

"Good point." I responded.

"Richard, you had a lot to lose today, what should we do with this person?"

"It's kinda over reacting but I feel like it's us or them. I want to take them deep into the woods and come back without them."

"Oshanna, you were kidnapped today. Your life is on the line here. What do you think we should do to this person?"

"I don't know." She whispered as she looked at the ground.

"How can you not know? This person put your life in danger. You were kidnapped today so you could be tortured and killed. Doesn't that bother you at all? Doesn't that make you angry at this person that keeps putting everyone's life in jeopardy?

She just looked miserably at me and didn't respond.

"I haven't mentioned it, but we caught eight of the gang members today. As it turns out there were thirteen in the park looking for us. If we had stayed today, there would have been more attempts to kidnap you again. Julio, you could have lost three sisters today because someone had to tell exactly where the whole family was. What should we do to this person?"

"You said it's somebody in this room?"

"Yes"

"Well maybe they don't know that they are doing it? Maybe they think they are just having fun."

"What part of 'don't tell anyone outside this family' is too hard for anyone here to understand?"

"Becky, you understand, right?" She shook her head yes.

"Maggie, you understand correct?" She nodded and slid down in her chair.

"Julie, I wasn't even that specific with you and yet you understand that your life is in danger and you wouldn't dare tell anyone where we are? Correct?"

"Correct" she answered clearly.

"Maggie, Becky, and Julie are the youngest people in the room. Everyone else is at least twice as old as they are and yet they understand that this situation is dangerous and wouldn't tell anyone where we are or what we are doing."

"Let's get down to it. This person has been constantly posting to Twitter where we are going and updating her Instagram account with photos of where we are and what we are doing. The only reason it took till today for the gang bangers to strike is because they knew ahead of time where the whole family would be. On Monday when I discussed going to Universal Studios with the family she posted it on Twitter."

"Instead of chasing us randomly around all week they spent several days planning the attack at Universal, where they could get the most women at one time. Then this morning when they got their crew to Universal they couldn't find us so they tweeted their 'friend' and asked where we were and she told them. That's how they were able to do such a precise attack against my men and kidnap six women in one shot." I paused for effect.

"So, Oshanna, what do you have to say for yourself?"

"I don't know, I didn't know. There are no bad guys on my account. You must be mistaken."

I pulled out her phone. "On last Thursday as we were leaving Trenton you tweeted you are on a big adventure going to Miami. Hours later the bad guys took a plane to Miami. On Friday you tweeted what cruise line we were on, but it is pretty hard to get to people that are on a cruise. It's not like you can rent a boat and go wave them down or hijack a cruise ship."

"On Saturday you tweeted about us being on the island but the whole ship was there so that didn't tell them anything they couldn't have figured out. But on Sunday you tweeted about the island and put a picture of you in front of your cabana on Instagram. Sunday night the bad guys stole a boat and invaded the island with machine guns and orders to kill everyone but Stephanie and Julie. My men saved everyone with no casualties. I could keep going because you tweeted about your whole week but the proof is not on your phone. The proof is on the bad guy's phone."

"This phone was taken off the leader of the gang." I held up the phone with the skull case on it. "These guys were promised $100,000 a head to kidnap each woman and half a million dollars each for Stephanie and Julie. He was using his Twitter to follow your Twitter feed and this morning you tweeted that we were going to Universal Studio's again."

"After half an hour of looking for us around the park, they had their contact in Colombia; the one that set up the fake profiles you accepted to follow you, ask you where you were this morning about 11:30. At 12:27 you answered and thirty minutes later when everyone went to the bathroom they struck. They also have texts of your Instagram posts. Whoever in Colombia that is following you was forwarding them on."

"But I can't help it if people make fake profiles-"

"'Don't tell ANYONE outside of the family or this room where we are or where we are going'. Julie, Becky and Maggie understand that (I waved my arm at them) I don't understand how you can't comprehend that."

"But those accounts are anonymous. None of my information is used on them, there is no way for anyone to know it is me."

"Obviously there is a way because they knew it was you and used fake profiles to friend you and continued to tweet you for information about this trip. To which you happily responded telling them everywhere you and the family were going all week."

"But I didn't know anyone was reading them."

"Obviously you did because you kept responding to them when they would ask you where you were and what is going on. This plan has been in the works for a long time. Sergio – the depraved guy trying to get you – started planning this at least six months ago because he applied for visas for the men he sent over and they take months to get. He probably searched out all of you on social media in one way or another. But no one else is using their social media or telling ANYONE on ANY platform, by text, phone or email where we are or where we are going."

I slipped my gun out of the holster and put it in her hands. Then I knelt down in front of her, as tears started streaming down her face. I held the gun up to my forehead and looked directly in her eyes.

"Let's just end it now. Solve everybody's problem. You shoot me in the head and the problem goes away for everyone. Everyone can just go back home and you don't have to worry about anybody ever coming after you to get to me again."

"Carlos." My mother gasped.

"But that's not what I want." She cried through her tears and her hands went limp on the gun. But I held her hands and the gun firm to my head. She has put everyone's life in jeopardy, I wasn't going to let her off that easy. I needed to make sure she understood the implications of her actions.

"But what do you want Oshanna? You obviously don't want to stop posting and every time you tweet or post an Instagram or send an email telling everyone where we are and what we are doing you are shooting me. I have so many holes I can't plug them. I'm bleeding out here and I can't stop it."

"But I didn't mean to. I didn't know that anyone was reading them." She whined.

"Then why were you posting them? If the account was anonymous and you don't know anyone who is on your account, why are you so hooked on posting that you put your entire family and all my men in danger to do it?" I finally let her drop her arms and stood up, holstering my gun as she watched me through her tears.

"It was fun. It was my way to get away, to escape. To make it seem like we are having fun and aren't running for our lives."

"Oshanna half the reason we are running for our lives is because every time I find someplace safe to hide you blow it wide open blabbing to the whole world about where we are and what is going on."

"I didn't do it on purpose, I was just passing the time." She cried.

"Your way of passing the time is going to get someone here killed. So tomorrow you and four guards are going back to Trenton. You will be locked up in a safe house where the most electronic thing around will be the digital clock on the stove. No TV, No phone, No Internet. You will be allowed to bring some books and magazines. There will be someone with you at all times making sure you are unable to contact anyone from the outside world. As of right now you are incommunicado." She was sobbing loudly now but this was not going to get a response from me, not after the week from hell she has put me through.

"Carlos, don't you think you are being too hard on her? Can't she just promise to stop? She did not know she was communicating with the bad guys." Mama said.

"Mama – 'no one outside of the family'! That is not the same thing as 'post it on social media for the whole world to read'. Next thing we know she will be calling her friends and telling them where we are going, excusing it by saying she didn't know the lines were tapped. Then emailing the girls from work saying she didn't know someone was hacking the accounts and reading them."

"She has no sense of privacy or how dangerous this situation is. She knew what she was doing was wrong and was breaking the rules but she kept doing it more and more every day. Twelve people, including her, could have been killed today and I can't justify allowing her anywhere near the family again. I can't live with myself if she endangers Julie or Stephanie, or my nieces and nephews. This has to stop now and the only way is to remove her from the group."

"That's not fair. I didn't know they were watching my Twitter feeds." She demanded.

"And your emails. 'No one outside of the family.' Why is that so hard for you to understand?"

"My emails? I never told anyone where we were going in my emails!" She claimed.

"You told Kathryn and Shatrice that you were leaving a tropical island to go to another tropical beach location. Where you would be staying on a beach, and hopefully get to see the sights and maybe go to a theme park. In this country there are two locations known for beaches and theme parks. You basically admitted we were going to Florida or California. Honestly, I haven't made a big deal out of your emails, because on Twitter you were telling them exactly where we were and what we were doing."

"But I didn't knowingly do it..." She said.

"But you knowingly sent emails to several of the women at work telling them about your 'flight from danger' in great detail. These guys can easily hack into a few emails."

"But I would never do anything to hurt my family." She insisted.

"Yet you did and you have over and over. Day after day you have been putting yourself and your family at risk."

"I would never _knowingly_ do anything to hurt my family." She cried.

"and yourself. You are the biggest danger to yourself. I am just trying to protect you from yourself."

"This is not right!" She stood up screaming,

"No, it's not right that one person should continually break the rules and put everyone else in danger."

"I didn't do it on purpose." She pouted sitting down again.

"No, worse, you did it for entertainment. You put your life and your families lives in danger for a few kicks and giggles."

"If you knew, why didn't you tell me sooner?" She questioned me as if it was somehow my fault.

"I didn't know till this afternoon. If anyone had asked me if someone in our group was purposefully telling the world where we were I would have told them they were crazy. No one in the group would do that. But here you are."

"This is not fair. You can't do this to me!" She yelled.

"I didn't do this to you, you did this to you."

"But I didn't know, now that I know I won't do it anymore." She insisted.

"Why? Oshanna, Why? Stand up and explain to everyone here why you have been selfishly putting everyone in danger by emailing, tweeting and Instagraming our secret location and telling the whole world where we are and putting all of our lives in danger and why any of that behavior would stop now."

She stood up and turned to face everyone in the room. "IIII'm so sooorrrrryyy. I…I…I…I…." She paused and took a deep shaky breath, wiping at the streams of tears that just kept falling from her eyes. "I didn't know that bad guys were monitoring my accounts and acting like they were my friends. It's just… It's just…" she paused and my mother handed her a Kleenex and she mopped at her face and blew her nose. "It's just that this is the first vacation I have ever taken as an adult since I moved away from home. And I wanted to brag about it and my friends on Twitter seemed very interested so I kept telling them more and more about where we were and what we were doing. It just made me feel good to have something special to talk about in my life and feel like I was special and people were interested in me. But I guess it was really just the bad guys pretending to be my friends to get information out of me."

She started crying loudly again. "I'm really sorry I put everyone in danger and I promise not to tell anyone else where we are going. Just don't send me away and lock me up. I know that I kinda deserve it, but it would be hell to be locked away from everybody and not have anyone to talk to for weeks, so please don't send me away. I double, I triple promise I won't tell anyone where we are or where we are going ever again. I won't tweet anything or post any pictures. I just can't get locked away. Please, just let me stay with the family."

I stood stone faced. If she had her way today I would be paying for twelve funerals and death benefits to five of my men's families. Then I would be paying to support three grieving husbands and seven children until they went off to college. And none of that even holds a candle to how devastated I would be losing my Babe, Stephanie, and my baby Jewels. I am just beginning to become part of their lives now and the thought of losing them wounds me in ways I can't even fully comprehend and qualify. The torture and rape they would have to endure before they were killed made my stomach turn and took away every ounce of pity Oshanna was begging me to feel for her.

My father stood up and took Oshanna into his arms. She burst out into a new pool of tears on his shoulder. "Well we are in a bad, rock has hit a life threateningly hard place situation. Oshanna thought she was bragging to some nameless, faceless friends who didn't know who she was or her situation and as a result was tricked into putting her family into danger." He addressed everybody.

"However, we all know, or should know by now, that we can't tell anyone outside of these walls where we are or where we are going, not for the week, not for the day, not for an hour. We have to believe that any phone we call is tapped, any email sent can be read and anything we post online the bad guys have access to. I have the only compromise I can offer to everyone here…" He released Oshanna and turned to look at everyone before continuing.

Damn, even in my very controlled world my Father's word is law and whatever he says now in this meeting is what everyone will agree with. I was frustrated and angry that I was losing control of this situation. I had been the commanding officer of my team in the Rangers. My word was respected and my orders were followed, creating more successful missions for the government than I could count and now I was going to have to bow to his suggestions. It was nearly impossible to keep my mouth shut and maintain my composure.

In my world my orders were never questioned and needed no explanation. The people I am responsible for rely on me to make the decisions that will keep everyone safe and achieve the goal. However, there was some small part of me that knew papa would be more rational and fair than I could even conceive of being at the moment. I also knew my family would abide by his calm and well-spoken solution rather than any order I give.

TBC…

A/N: Thank you all for your reviews! What should he do to Oshanna and what is his father going to say? Please read and review.

As always big THANK YOU to my beta Sassysaint

Second Big THANK YOU to my sister, Jonelle. Who is giving my stories a thorough technical analysis (ie deep proof reading) Thank you for fixing all my many little mistakes.

Ranger's Family Album

Mother's Mother – Abuela Rosa, Father's Mother – Abuela Sanja Manoso

Mother – Maria Father – Javier

Siblings and family in age order

Leyla (35) & Richard Gonzales– Rebecca (Becky) 12, Margaret (Maggie) 10, Richard (Ricky) 7, Michael (Mikie) 5

Angelia (34) & Jordan White – Shanna 5 – Kendrick (Ricky) 3

Ricardo Carlos Manoso (32)– Ranger

Julio Manoso (30) Ex Allysa – Jacob 2

Isabella (27) & Diego Diaz – Chris 8, Shylia 6, Parker 3

Oshanna Manoso (22)

Rachel & Ron – Julie 12, Fredrico (Freddie) 9, Cassandra (Cassie) 6

Trenton & Miami Merry Men Assignments (33 Men)

Abuela Sanja – Vince, Ian

Abuela Rosa – Manuel, Gavin

Maria – Erik, Francis

Leyla – Hal, Tony

Angelia – Woody, Dillion

Isabella – Cal, Red

Oshanna – Lester, Sport

Rachel – Eddie, Pace

Julie – Junior, Scott

Stephanie – Ranger, Marc, Tiger

Extra's – Bobby, Ram, Zero, Zip

Night's – Chet, Chester, Gino, Mario, Ryan, Ramon, Billy, Cade, Simon


	23. Chapter 23 Another Beach Day in LA

Chapter 23 Another Beach Day in LA

 _My father stood up and took Oshanna into his arms. She burst out into a new pool of tears on his shoulder. "Well we are in a bad, rock has hit a life threateningly hard place situation. Oshanna thought she was bragging to some nameless, faceless friends who didn't know who she was or her situation and as a result was tricked into putting her family into danger." He addressed everybody._

" _However, we all know, or should know by now, that we can't tell anyone outside of these walls where we are or where we are going, not for the week, not for the day, not for an hour. We have to believe that any phone we call is tapped, any email sent can be read and anything we post online the bad guys have access to. I have the only compromise I can offer to everyone here…" He released Oshanna and turned to look at everyone before continuing._

 _Damn, even in my very controlled world my Father's word is law and whatever he says now in this meeting is what everyone will agree with. I was frustrated and angry that I was losing control of this situation. I had been the commanding officer of my team in the Rangers. My word was respected and my orders were followed, creating more successful missions for the government than I could count and now I was going to have to bow to his suggestions. It was nearly impossible to keep my mouth shut and maintain my composure._

 _In my world my orders were never questioned and needed no explanation. The people I am responsible for rely on me to make the decisions that will keep everyone safe and achieve the goal. However, there was some small part of me that knew papa would be more rational and fair than I could even conceive of being at the moment. I also knew my family would abide by his calm and well-spoken solution rather than any order I give._

"I suggest that Oshanna is allowed to stay with the family for the rest of the trip. But she has to be cut off from all electronics." Papa announced to everyone. "No phone, no computer, no iPad, no internet, no smart TV. And that means everyone's electronics. No one can lend her a phone, a computer or a tablet. Nothing that can communicate with anyone or anything outside these walls. Not to check her emails, not to check the news, not to check the weather."

"Oshanna is an electronic junkie." He continued. "For the last several years she has always been plugged into something. So, if she agrees to this she is agreeing to not ask or try to use anyone's computers, phones or tablets until we are done with this trip. Everyone here understands that she is like a drug junkie. That she will want to ask or just use a phone or computer that is left unattended."

"Our job is to remove all temptations. No electronics left out. No phones being borrowed. If she really needs to make a phone call she can come ask me. I have a satellite phone and if I authorize the call I will take responsibility for what she says while on that call. That is the only piece of electronics she is allowed to touch till we get home. Can you agree to that Oshanna?" He leaned back, looked at her and she nodded. "Can everyone else promise to help her by denying her access to all electronics?" There were nods and words of agreement all around the room.

"Papa, I can agree to that but I need stronger agreements from everyone else. Because like a crack addict Oshanna is going to start hitting people up for a fix and I need to know that everyone will put the safety of themselves and the family in front of Oshanna's need to be connected. Julie, Becky and Maggie can you all agree to not let Oshanna use your phones, tablets or laptops until this trip is over?" I asked them. All three girls said yes.

"Stephanie, you are Oshanna's good friend. Can you promise not to let Oshanna use your phone at any time, for any reason until this trip is over?"

"Sure."

"Julio, you are Oshanna's brother and best friend. Can you promise not to let Oshanna use your phone, or computer at any time, for any reason until this trip is over?"

"Yes"

"Angelia, you are Oshanna's sister and best friend. Can you promise not to let Oshanna use your phone, or computer at any time, for any reason until this trip is over?"

"Yes"

"Diego and Isabella, you are Oshanna's sister and brother-in-law. Can you support Oshanna and promise not to let her use your phone, computer or any of your kids' electronics at any time, for any reason until this trip is over?"

"Yes"

"Yes"

"Richard and Leyla, you are Oshanna's sister and brother-in-law. Can you support Oshanna and promise not to let her use your phone, computer or any of your kids' electronics at any time, for any reason until this trip is over?"

"Yes"

"Yes"

"Ron and Rachel, you don't know Oshanna, but can you support her and promise not to let her use your phone, computer or any of your kids' electronics at any time, for any reason until this trip is over?"

"Yes"

"Yes"

"Mama, Papa, can you support Oshanna and promise not to let her use your phone, computer or any of your electronics at any time, for any reason until this trip is over?"

"Of course."

"Yes"

"Abuela Sanja y Abuela Rosa, Oshanna ha estado usando su teléfono y computadora para decirle a otras personas dónde se ha escondido la familia. Nos ha guiado a los malos y ha causado el ataque hoy. ¿Puede apoyar a Oshanna y prometer que no le permitirá usar su teléfono, computadora o cualquiera de sus dispositivos electrónicos en ningún momento por ningún motivo hasta que termine este viaje?" _(Abuela Sanja and Abuela Rosa, Oshanna has been using her phone and computer to tell other people where the family has been hiding. It has led the bad guys right to us and caused the attack today. Can you support Oshanna and promise not to let her use your phone, computer or any of your electronics at any time, for any reason until this trip is over?")_

Both my Abuela's answered " _Si_ "

"Remember that what we do here tonight we do for everybody's safety. If we can keep our location secret we can have more fun and be more relaxed knowing that we are safe. Now I have to ask. Has anyone else been posting anything about this trip on any social media sites? Or sending emails with information about our whereabouts? I have to tell you that my men are going through everyone's phones so I will know the answer to this soon enough, but it will go better for you if you just fess up to it now." I paused and looked around the room.

"Anyone? Any postings at all?" I paused again. "Good. My men will finish going through your phones and electronics and they will be here on the dining room table in this house probably by dinner."

"Oshanna go to your room and don't come out till dinner. You put all of our lives in danger and I honestly can't stand to look at you anymore." I told her. She got up and walked out the backdoor and I hope went back to her house. I can say it was petty but I didn't want to talk about any future plans in front of her. I looked around at the rest of the group and my eyes focused on Stephanie and after staring at her for a moment my blood pressure started going down. She has always had this calming effect on me.

"Now on to more pleasant topics, like what we will be doing for the next few days. No information about these houses or where we are staying was given out. We should be safe here for the night. Go ahead and finish most of your packing tonight. We have to be out of here by two o'clock tomorrow."

"If you want to do something fun tomorrow," I continued. "We can get up early, load all our luggage in the SUVs and have one last day in Los Angeles. Unless anyone else has pressing things they want to do, in light of our new information, I think we could go back to Universal Studios tomorrow." Big Yeaaa's from Maggie, Becky and Julie. "And Isabella there is at least one little princess that I promised we would try to let go to Disney World. If you think she will be interested?"

"Yes, she would be interested." Isabella answered smiling.

"Let me explain the situation. My travel assistant knew that one day is not enough to see Universal Studios Theme Park. When she bought our tickets, she negotiated a special deal for two day express ride VIP passes. Everyone that wants, already has a ticket for tomorrow. Isabella and Diego let me know how many in your party wants to go to Disneyland; anybody else that wants to go to Disneyland tell me as well and I will make arrangements for you and all your men. If there is something else that any of you would like to do tomorrow instead just let me know by dinner. Mama, Papa, _Abuelas_ if you want to go to the Getty or any other museum just let me know."

"We will plan for the plane to leave about 21:00 that's nine o'clock tomorrow night so you can have a full day at the theme parks or where ever you want to go. Tomorrow night is going to be a surprise, I don't even know where we are going to be spending the night and then after Saturday we will be where we are going to be for a week. So, you can relax, take a break and not have to pack or unpack or haul suitcases for a week. Side note there are washers and dryers in each house, this is a good opportunity to do laundry tonight and then everything you pack will be clean for the next week."

"Does anyone else have anything to add to this meeting?" I asked the group.

My mama spoke, " _Gracias mi'jo_ , for not sending Oshanna away. I know you must be very angry with her right now. I will stay with her for the next week and keep an eye on her to make sure she is keeping to the agreement. I am telling you right now, she will not be given a chance to tell anyone where we are going anymore."

" _Gracias_ Mama. I do appreciate that. Now everyone but my men are dismissed."

Slowly my family got up and made their way out of the room. Most of them went into the den to check on the children there.

"Men, out front for a briefing." I told them and they all started moving in that direction. I went over to Stephanie and took her in my arms again.

"Babe I need to talk to my men and do something that will take about half an hour. You can pretty much do whatever you want right now, but can I ask a favor of you?"

"Sure." She smiled up at me.

"Can you not hang out with Oshanna for the next two days? After Saturday you can hang out with her as much as you want, but I need to be with you and not be around her for a couple of days."

"Okay, I guess. It's just that I was going to go talk to her now."

"I'll be busy for the next half an hour or so. If you need to go talk to her do it, but then please come back and spend the afternoon with me on the beach."

"Okay, I can do that." She told me.

"Thanks." I told her and gave her a panty destroying kiss.

I followed my men out to the front round driveway and addressed them. "Good job today, men. I am still very displeased that some of you were ambushed and six women were taken. But the rest of you took up the slack, found the women immediately, and caught eight of the bad guys. We were able to find the leak and that is priceless to our safety and will reduce the chances of them finding us again. Lester, Woody, Junior, Hal, Sport as soon as this meeting is over meet me on the beach."

"Everyone else is welcome to watch and when I am done with those five you can join in. I have a lot of extra energy ready to be burned off in a fight and there is no punching bag or weight room here. If you are interested and can handle it feel free to come at me three on one. We are at the houses for the duration of the day. We had dinner reservations but I am going to cancel those and order in pizza for everyone. I will need three volunteers to go get dinner."

"After the fighting is over, I am sending night shift back to bed. Assignments: Marc on Stephanie, Junior on Julie. Lester, you are on Oshanna. She gets a daytime guard to make sure no one with electronics goes into her private room. Confiscate them as they enter and return them when they leave, frisk them if you think it is needed. Francis, Gavin, Manuel, front house one; Eddie, Dillon, Ian front of house two; Scott, Sport, Pace front of house three. Vince, Erik, Tiger rear house one, Cal, Hal, Tony rear house two, Red, Woody, Ram, rear house three. Zip you are inside house one, Zero inside house two, Bobby you're patching people up as needed then inside house three."

"Everyone outside carries LSATs with fifty rounds. After the fighting everyone go change into pants, shorts were OK for the theme park but I want you to be seen from a distance as dangerous and on-duty. Tomorrow you are back at theme parks and museums. Any one that prefers Disneyland can text me and I will make those assignments. Shorts are okay for tomorrow."

"Saturday, the family is leaving on a seven-day cruise. I will be making sure that they are safely aboard and leaving to go resolve this problem. Again, the family will be told I am going away for business. Stick to that and tell them I will be back as soon as possible. I will be gone until probably Tuesday and I will try to rejoin the cruise at whatever stop they are on. Any questions?"

"Do you need help or volunteers for your business trip?"

"As much as I would be willing to take any of you, I need you here. Making sure my family is safe is the number one priority. It wouldn't serve any purpose to get back and find out half my family has been taken or killed while I was gone. We know that up till now their orders have been to kidnap and torture before killing. Be aware that at any point in time those orders could change to just kill, and you may be dealing with snipers, sharp shooters, or other mercenaries armed to the teeth. Sergio keeps offering people millions to do his bidding. Realize that whoever comes at you will be very motivated. Meet me out back in ten."

I left my men and went upstairs to my bedroom. I took off my boots, gun belt and shirt and began stretching and then going through movements to warm up my muscles and joints. After eight minutes I went downstairs to meet my men.

Some may think meeting me on the mats is barbaric, that I am just beating my men up for failing me. But this gives them a chance to show and improve their own skills and I know how to hit so that it hurts but doesn't leave more than a bruise. It wouldn't do to damage my men so that they are incapable of protecting the women and doing their jobs. I can hit them several times, throw them a few times and they get winded or the wind knocked out of them and they get the point. I'm the big dog, my word is to be followed without question and if you fail you can expect a few bruises and to land flat on your back, repeatedly.

When we are done they know they will begin with a clean slate and that the past mistake is behind them. I don't hold screw-ups against them unless they become recurrent and then they know they will lose their job. I took on the first five men separately. I was here to leave a message. Once they were done and picking themselves off the sand I realized most of my family, including Stephanie, was outside on the decks watching us. I had been aware of a growing audience but my focus had been on my men.

It takes real skill to hit the right spots and bruise and hurt without leaving any real damage. I needed my focus not to get caught up in all the anger that was still pouring through me and just kick the shit out of them so that I would feel better. Once done I had pulled each of them off of the sand and called all my men down to join me.

Fighting in sand has whole new dimensions because your feet are not as solid underneath you and a hit you could normally take with no problem may knock you down as the sand shifts under your feet. Or that kick to the head you easily block may knock sand off in your face and eyes, making breathing and seeing more difficult. These things were in my mind when I picked my men to go at me three on one. It still gives them the chance to get a few hits in but I get to let loose and really work out some of my anger. Nothing gets rid of anger like throwing a two hundred fifty pound man.

In a real fight I would purposefully use the sand to my benefit repeatedly throwing it in their faces and knocking them down instead of throwing them. I didn't want to have to avoid multiple sand throws myself so I left that out of the fight and focused on short punches and kicks to knock them off balance and then threw them into each other, taking out two opponents at once.

Almost thirty minutes later I called a halt to the fight. Most of my men had the chance to get involved. I had been knocked down more times than I could count because that was the easy move in sand. I had taken down everyone that had come at me and I was finally starting to run out of adrenalin. I told all my men to get cleaned up, see Bobby if they needed, and report to their stations. I shook off all the sand that was coating me and just decided to walk down to the water to go for a quick swim.

I figured I would go about a mile, ten minutes out and ten minutes back. When I came back out of the water most of my family was now out having fun on the beach. The younger kids were all over digging in the sand with their toys and the older kids and some of my siblings with their husbands were swimming. Stephanie and Angelia had pulled loungers down off the patio and were laying out.

"Great job Dad." Julie called out.

"You were awesome." Chris told me as I made my way past.

"Thanks." I responded. I got to the shore and went over to Stephanie.

"Babe," I leaned over her, purposefully dripping onto her. "Can I borrow your towel?"

"Ranger!" She squealed, hopping up. "You're getting me all wet." she accused.

I just smiled to myself as I took the towel she had been lying on and started drying off with it.

"Thanks." I told her. "I'll bring a fresh one down." I said as I started walking away, laughing to myself at the haughty glare she was giving me.

I went upstairs and gathered up a load of laundry for myself and Stephanie. I changed into board shorts and a RangeMan tank top then grabbed two more towels and took the load downstairs to get it started washing. I knew that some of my family had been doing laundry all week, but I wanted to get a jump ahead of anyone who will be packing tonight and suddenly decide they need to do laundry.

I pulled out my phone and made the call I had put off earlier.

"Skylar my wonderful woman."

"Ranger, the man that has been avoiding me." She scolded.

"I was in a room with intense negotiations going on earlier, I really couldn't talk."

"And you couldn't have stepped out of the room for something as important as talking to me instead of just texting."

"I'm calling you now Beautiful. To say thank you for everything you do and for getting us taken care of for the week. I know I have been almost spastic today, asking you to do one thing, then changing it and then changing it again. I appreciated you doing everything I have asked, even as neurotic as I have been, and taking care of me and my family."

"Ranger you know I would do anything for you. I could hear it in the tone of your texts and knew you were frantic and that something major was going on."

"The bad guys found us at Universal Studios today, took down five of my men and kidnapped six of the women, including Stephanie and Julie. Frantic is a nice word for what I was. Fortunately, we got everybody back unharmed a short time later. Caught a few of the guys hired to take the women and the most important thing, we figured out where the leak was and it is now permanently plugged."

"What were they doing, following your phone or something?" She asked.

"No, my youngest, stupidest, most careless sister was tweeting everything we were doing and where we were going. The bad guys knew she liked social media and started following her months ago. These people that kept asking her where she was and what she and the family were doing, she thought they were friends that she had known for several months, but really it was just the bad guys trying to find out where we were."

"That's crazy, and she was telling them?"

"Yes, she has been tweeting every day since we left about our location, what was going on and where we were going next."

"…and you finally caught and stopped her?"

"Actually, we caught some of the guys that kidnapped them and they had the twitter feeds on their phones."

"So now you want me to make flight reservations to send her to Antarctica?"

"I would like to. That was my plan, but I told the whole family what she was doing and my father interceded on her behalf. She gets to stay with the family but she is not allowed to be in the same room with any electronics that can connect to anything. She can have a wind-up watch, that is the most electrical thing allowed to be around her."

"So what are you calling me for? I already did everything you asked earlier."

"Set up the plane to leave tomorrow night at 9:00 pm. We are going to spend the day at the theme parks again and then blow this popsicle stand."

"Done."

"What I really need is to rework dinner tonight. Please cancel the plans that you made. Now that I have everybody at the houses and safe I want to keep everyone here. I want to order in pizza. But from some place that has nice big salads, and maybe some kinds of large dishes like fettucine alfredo, or manicotti or a couple of Italian dishes."

"No problem Ricardo, I've got you covered. 60 people, salad, bread sticks, a couple of large dishes and pizza."

"Let me know where and when. My men are going to pick it up."

"Done and done. I will text you the details."

"Thanks Sweetheart. One more thing."

"Of course, there is one more thing. What else can I do for you?"

"Some of my sisters want to take their kids to Disneyland instead of Universal Studios tomorrow. Can you arrange VIP tickets for them? I'm guessing somewhere between five to eight people will be going."

"I will have the tickets ready, you just let me know tonight how many people will be going."

"Thank you, dearest lady of my realm. You are my savior in all of this."

"Always Ranger. I am always here for you."

"Goodnight."

"Talk to you later Ranger."

I disconnected and had a thought. If Oshanna had been feeding the bad guys our direction, we can use her phone to feed them misdirection. Alaska, here we come. I am sure they are also monitoring the plane, so when we are getting ready to leave we will send them in the wrong direction. I smiled smugly to myself. Maybe we can get one step ahead of them this time. I took the towels back outside and my dad stopped me on the patio.

"Carlos, I was so mad when I saw you practicing your karate in the backyard so many years ago. I truly thought you were learning how to fight to get back into the gangs. Now I see that you have learned a lot about fighting and are an amazing fighter. I'm surprised that even three on one your men could hardly get any hits in on you. You throw them around like rag-dolls. I don't say it enough, but I am truly proud of the man you have become. I am proud of the distinguished way you selflessly served this country and I am proud and impressed by the successful business you run. I have never had as many men working for me as you do, in four different locations no less. Watching you command so many men and seeing them follow your orders without question because they respect you and choose to work for you is just awe inspiring. You are also obviously very profitable and financially sound for still being so young." He took me into his arms and hugged me tightly.

"I love you _mi'jo_ and I am proud of you for so many things, but the way you handled your sister today was impressive." He held me by my shoulders looking deep into my eyes. "You didn't just throw her out. You didn't rant and rave and put her down. You logically called the whole family together to solve the problem. I understand wanting to send her away, but I am grateful you let me have a say and that you took it under advisement to let her stay with the family. This whole event has really shown me the kind of man you have become. You didn't try to hide this problem from the family. You faced it head on, took responsibility for it and have done everything possible to make this trip safe and fun for everyone. It is a lot more than many others would have done or could have afforded to do."

"Thanks Papa."

"One final thing, if you need to borrow any money to pay for this trip or anything else, I have substantial savings. I can help you pay for part of this. It's really like a strange vacation and it is not really fair for you to pay for it all."

"It's my fault that this is all happening, I don't mind paying for it. Besides, and don't tell this to anyone else in the family not even mama, part of the reason Sergio is doing what he is doing is to force me to spend money. It is one of the ways he wants to hurt me, he's trying to bankrupt me. When I catch up with him he is going to pay me back double for every dollar that I have spent." (Well really he'll pay me back ten times and more what I am spending.)

"You're going to get him to pay you money? How can you do that?"

"Simple. If he wants to live and wants me to leave his wives and children alone he will pay me whatever I am asking."

"I may not have understood, I just assumed you were going to go take him out to get rid of the threat to your Mama, Stephanie and your sisters."

"He is a businessman, hitting him in the wallet with the threat of death for himself and his family, will hurt him worse than anything else I can do to him. Besides he is in Colombia. You kill one man; then his family and business partners will come after you. You take his money and threaten him, then he will have to make the choice to leave you alone. If I take ten million dollars from him and prove to him that I will ruin him if he continues to harass me and mine, he will back off. That's the base price I will accept for all of this so I will come out ahead when all of this is over."

"Ten million dollars? You think he will pay that?"

"Papa he is worth over a billion dollars. Ten million is nothing to him now. The problem is that ten years ago my mission cost him millions of dollars and he has held a grudge all this time. More than the grudge was his promise of retribution. His word is worth more to him than just some money. That is why he is willing to spend his hard earned cash to get back at me. Ten million is less than half of what I cost him back then. I will make it clear to him that this is his life he is playing with and that every time he comes after me it will cost him more and more money. I will get his word that he will stop coming after me and mine. He cares more about his money and his reputation than he does his life."

"You think that will work?"

"I'm pretty sure of it. If taking his money is not enough, and he won't give me his word, then I will do whatever I have to do to make mama and my family safe. But in situations like these that is never the first line of defense. Like I said before, you kill someone rich and powerful in Colombia and it only makes more people come after you."

"Alright, I trust that you know the kind of people you are dealing with and what you are doing. I trust you to make the right decisions. Those are my wife's, my mother's and my daughter's lives I am trusting you with, so make sure you are making the right decisions."

"I'm sure Papa. I've dealt with his kind before. The kind of rich and powerful men he is around won't risk that I will come and take money from them too. They will scold him for coming after me and tell him that he got what he deserved. Personally, I think part of the reason no one from my family is dead yet is because he has two sons and two daughters. He knows if he hurt me in that way there is not enough money in the world to protect his own family. That is the ultimate threat, if nothing else works it will make him fall in line."

"I'm even more proud of you now. I assumed with your background that reaching for a gun is the way you would solve this."

"Sometimes Papa, that is the only way. But in South America there are lots of guns and threats. Hitting them in the wallet hurts worse." I wouldn't tell my father but I was going to hit him up for a hundred million dollars or more. I wanted to see what he thought his life and the lives of his children were worth. It had to be enough to make him bleed, with the promise of stripping him of everything if he ever went after me or mine ever again. I was personally beginning to wobble on the thought of outright killing him but what I told my father was true. Killing him might bring more people after me and mine in retribution. Taking everything from him would make him mad enough to just come after me harder. I was trying to strike the right balance between punishing him and threatening his family to keep him and others away from ever harming my women again.

He grabbed me again and hugged me. "Love you son." He whispered before letting me go. I stepped back and headed down the stairs to Stephanie. My father's words melted away some of the anger and frustration I have felt about him and my mother over the years. I've always wanted him to be proud of me for something. I have always felt that I let him down when I was fourteen. Getting involved in the gangs and stealing that car. I know that even while I was in juvie and after they sent me away that the gang members continued to harass my sisters and brother.

Some of them worked hard to recruit my brother and that was one time his laziness paid off. He never wanted what they offered. He didn't want money, or to belong, or to join so he could beat up others instead of being beat up. He just wanted to be left alone and his older sisters protected him more after I left so eventually that's what he got.

I walked down and gave Stephanie the fresh towels then went into the water to play with Julie and the other kids. Julie and the girls got into a splash fight with her brother and the boys. The boys tried to chicken fight with her and the girls to prove who was more superior but the girls couldn't keep standing in the waves so I stepped up. I picked Julie up and put her on my shoulders and she easily beat her brother Freddie that was on top of Chris.

"No fair!" Freddie cried. "Uncle Carlos is much taller than we are."

"Where is your dad?" I asked. "He is taller than me. Maybe he can come help you."

"Nope I want one of your big strong men to come help me." he declared. I smiled inside. As much as I wanted my men to be threatening I didn't really want them to be frightening my family, especially all the little kids and it was good to know it was working.

"Okay Freddie. Pick any man up on that beach and I will have them come down here and help you and Chris out." The two boys stood very still looking over the men in black on the shoreline with automatic rifles at the ready and debated it. They took time pointing at different men and discussing them.

"Okay Uncle Carlos, we want him, the big white guy with the tattoo on his forehead." They said pointing to Cal. I was surprised. Cal looks like one of my meanest men with the flaming skull tattoo on his forehead. I would have thought he was pretty unapproachable but obviously the boys were not afraid of him. Even more likely, they thought his meanness or badassness would help them in a fight.

I walked onto the shoreline and waved Cal over.

"If you're not too busy soldier I have a short-term assignment for you."

"Yes Sir."

"Go onto the patio and strip down to your cargos. Hand your weapon off to Hal or someone to watch. Then return here. We have some chicken fighting that the boys can't seem to win and they think if they have a better base they will do better against their sisters. Can you handle that soldier?" I asked, his smile getting wider as he understood what I was asking of him.

"Yes, Sir. Be right back Sir." Five minutes later Cal was wading towards us, the big grin on his face belying the dangerousness of this man.

"Okay" He boomed. "Who needs help kicking some little girl as…butts?" Freddie, Ricky and Chris all waved their hands and went over to meet up with him.

"I'm first," Freddie declared. "Julie is my sister and I need to take her down."

"Alright, up you go." Cal declared and picked the boy up and plopped him down on his shoulders.

Julie swam over to me and I plucked her out of the water and put her on my shoulders. The other children stood around cheering as Julie and Freddie locked arms. They pushed on each other and pulled and I saw that Julie had a good hold of him.

"Julie hold on to him." I told her and I quickly took two steps back and she held onto Freddie and almost pulled him off, but Cal sensing what I was doing held on tightly to the boy's legs and stepped towards me giving Freddie the ability to hang on. Another few seconds and Julie pushed him hard making him lose his balance. Freddie fell backwards into the water and Cal had to let go of his little legs.

Julie waved her arms up in the air and yelled, "We are the Champions! We are the Champions!"

Freddie said, "best two out of three."

"I already won two." Julie declared.

"The first one didn't count cause I didn't have a good base. You got to let me do it again." Freddie explained.

Minutes later their arms were locked together again. Julie trying to pull him off to the side and me side stepping that way to give her more leverage, but Cal watching and moving with me.

"Dad get closer." Julie yelled. I took another step towards them so Cal and I were almost face to face. I knew why Freddie had picked Cal. At 6'4" he is one of the biggest men that came with me on this trip and those few inches of height were helping Freddie in his quest to get his big sister. Another minute or two and Julie knocked him back into the water again.

"Whoot Whoot!" Julie cried. "We are the best Water Champions here!"

For the next ten minutes all of the boys lost to the girls. Chris to Becky and Ricky to Maggie. Of course, all of the girls were two to three years older and bigger so the boys didn't really have to feel bad about it. I suggested the girls go up against each other to see who was the best and after several rounds Julie had won all but one. Then the boys decided they needed to see who was the best. I don't know if it was because he had gone up against Julie and learned some of her tricks or the fact he was on my shoulders but Freddie beat out both Chris and Ricky.

I was just happy to see all the kids playing together so well. I always wanted Julie to get to know her cousins better and this vacation was doing a lot of things that were good including giving her and her siblings a chance to know all their cousins. I dismissed Cal to go change and get back to his position and he offered to help with the kids anytime.

I decided after dinner I would suggest a volleyball tournament for my men, to break the stress and craziness of the last week.

I pulled Julio out of Oshanna's room for a talk. "I have three men going to pick up dinner and they can drop you off at your hotel." I offered.

"No, Bro. I was going to stay here and spend the night with the family."

"Are you sure? This is our last night in California. Tomorrow night we leave for parts unknown."

"Yeah I'm sure. Oshanna needs the support tonight and I want to go back to the theme park with you guys tomorrow."

"Okay, if your certain I will have some of my men drive you back to your hotel room in the morning so you can get your stuff and check out."

"Sure, that would be great." He said and he went back into Oshanna's room to keep her company. I knew that Julio and Oshanna had grown close since they were teens, but I never thought he would give up a night of women and clubbing to keep her company. Maybe he was growing up just a little bit. I went down and transferred our laundry to the dryer.

I sent three guys, one from the front of each house to go together to get the dinner that was waiting at Fossetti's Italian Restaurant. They came back with trays of lasagna, chicken fettucine alfredo, and baked ziti. Large salads, bread sticks, eight pizzas for the family and fifteen pizzas for the men.

During dinner I went to update the night shift on all the events of today and the plan for the weekend. I offered them two SUVs and hotel reservations for the next day so in the morning they could pack up and go sleep all day without interruption. When dayshift came for dinner I suggested the volleyball games and told them to divide up into teams. After shouts of agreement went up all around I asked Marc for all of Oshanna's electronics. I was going to use her phone as a diversion.

While everyone was eating I asked for the number of people that wanted to go to Disneyland.

"Actually Carlos, is it okay if we split up? Chris really wants to stay with Ricky and Freddie and go to Universal Studios. It will just be me, Shylia and Parker going to Disneyland."

"Sure, we can do that." I told her as I planned to send extra men for her protection.

"Carlos, if it's alright we would like to go too. So, three more for Disneyland." Angelia told me. My mama heard them.

"If all the little ones are going to Disney. I'd like to go as well and help out with them." Mama said.

"Is that just you or you and Papa?" I asked.

"Just me. Papa can go hang out with the boys."

" _Quiero ir con los más pequeños también_." Abuela Rosa said and I nodded. (I want to go with the little ones too.) I knew that Abuela Sanja could speak English she just preferred Spanish. I'd always suspected that Abuela Rosa understood more English than she let on and this trip was proving it to me.

"I'd like to spend time with the young ladies tomorrow at Universal Studios, if that's all right with you three?" Abuela Sanja said. Becky and Maggie both nodded at her.

"Sure _Abuela_ you are welcome to join us." said Leyla.

Only three of my men had texted that they wanted to go to Disneyland and I needed nine so I quickly made those assignments. I texted the final numbers for Disneyland to Skylar: eight family, four adults, and four children. I texted her everyone's names, as well as my nine men, and told her to put the tickets on hold in my mother's name.

Everyone pigged out at dinner and there were still a lot of leftovers. My mother said she would heat them up for breakfast for anyone who was interested. When the family was finished eating I told them about the volleyball games after dinner and invited everyone who wanted to come and watch and cheer on their favorite teams.

When Marc brought me Oshanna's phone and computer I took them upstairs and immediately knew I didn't know what to say. I texted Stephanie to come to the room that I needed her help. She came up and I explained to her my plan to lead our nemesis to Alaska and asked her what I could type that would be in line with Oshanna but keep the bad guys off of us till we left town.

"Simple," she said. "Continue on with her complaining about you and what a hard ass you are being. Something like: 'My brother is such a control freak. After the events today he has locked us all in our hotel rooms.' Then tomorrow morning type that 'He is being a hard ass and won't let us go anywhere today except down to the beach, how boring. Totally lame vacation.'"

"Then tomorrow night text. 'All excited, finally we are leaving to go somewhere else, but he won't tell us where.' Then file a flight plan to Alaska and Saturday morning have her bitch about being locked away in a freezing cold remote cabin where there is no beach. And that as much as she likes shopping, shopping for heavy winter coats in April sucks."

"Thanks Babe that is perfect. They won't suspect a thing and it will throw them off our trail." I told her as I tweeted her suggestion _'My brother is such a control freak. After the events today he has locked us all in our hotel rooms.'_ on Oshanna's phone and hit send.

Minutes later one of the fake accounts wanted to know what was going on.

' _My pain-in-the-ass know-it-all brother won't let us go out to do anything. Even though we are safe now. We are on lockdown in the hotel for the night.'_

Suddenly we could hear the cheering coming from outside and I guessed the volleyball games were beginning.

My men had divided themselves into four teams of six each, all showing up stripped down to the shorts they had changed back into. I'm not gay but even I could appreciate the toned male flesh that was rippling as each man jumped for the ball. I hadn't realized how attached my family was getting to my men but each woman and some of their kids were cheering for their own personal bodyguards.

Up first was Team One made up of Hal, Cal, Zero, Zip, Manuel and Francis playing against Team Two that included Lester, Woody, Bobby, Vince, Eddie and Eric. Team One had the bigger men on it, but team two was more experienced in volleyball and they were currently ahead by three.

"Go Hal! Kick their butts!" was coming from my sister Leyla and her kids.

"Get 'em Francis!" from my mother.

"Hit it Cal! Take them down!" yelled Isabella.

"Go Lester!" came from Oshanna, who I realized had escaped her room for dinner and was still out and about. As much as I may want to lock her in her room for the rest of the trip I knew that was an unrealistic expectation.

Angelia was hollering for Woody to "Spike the ball!"

Becky and Maggie were both hollering for Hal. _Abuela_ Sanja was yelling for Vince to "Ace it"!

The cheering and yelling went on through the game till Team Two got to 21 points. That seemed to be the standard number and both teams left the court.

Team Three was made up of Marc, Tiger, Junior, Ram, Ian and Tony. This team was half huge, standing in the back row was Tiger, Junior, and Ram. Marc, Ian and Tony were thinner but tall and lethal in the front row. Team Four was all Miami guys: Dillon, Red, Sport, Gavin, Scott and Pace. They also put their biggest guys in the back and their leaner guys in the front row.

Play was fierce and fast. The serves were quickly returned with each side setting the ball up and spiking it over the net. Once again my family was hollering for their favorite players.

"Hit it Red!" yelled Isabella.

"Go Sport!" hollered Oshanna.

"Spike it Ian!" yelled _Abuela_ Sanja.

"Get it Tony!" came from Leyla.

Stephanie was cheering on both Marc and Tiger. Julie and Rachel were hollering for Junior to "Smash it!" and Scott to "Set it and Spike it". The play went on till Team Three beat Team Four soundly 21-15. With Julie running up to hug Junior telling him she knew he could do it.

A time out was called so Team Three could get something to drink and cool down before the final game was to begin.

Fifteen minutes later the ball was served, starting the final game and my family was at it yelling and screaming for their favorite players.

"Go Erik!" called my mama.

"Come on Tiger serve that ball!" came from Stephanie.

"Hit it Junior!" yelled Julie.

"Lester spike it!" yelled Oshanna.

"Set it up Eddie!" came from Rachel with more yelling from Becky and Maggie.

"Go Woody!" yelled Angelia.

"Get it Tony!" was coming from Leyla

"Spike it Ian!" came from _Abuela_ Sanja.

Everyone was hollering as the game repeatedly tied. Both sides being pretty evenly matched in speed, muscle, teamwork and stealth. Finally, after two good set-ups Team Three pulled ahead and finally won 21-19. There was a lot of talk from team two that it was supposed to be the best out of three games and next thing I knew they were playing again. Team Two beat Team Three in the second game 21-20. Everyone agreed to another fifteen-minute break and several of the men dove into the ocean to cool off.

By the end of the third game my family was becoming hoarse from all the yelling. The ball was moving so fast you could hardly keep up as one of the major strategies was to keep it moving faster than the other team could respond. This game the play was wild and practically manic, the ball was moving so fast. Suddenly, Team Two broke away and got ahead of Team Three. Which lasted for several long minutes till Team Three tied it up again.

Team Three called a time out and after just two minutes of quick discussion were lined back up this time with Tiger and Marc at the net. As soon as the play restarted their plan was obviously to set up Tiger and let him spike the ball over the net. Three plays later they were ahead and finally won 21-18. I was proud of my men for strategizing and taking down the opposing team as they have been trained to do. I stood by the net congratulating each team on a good game, giving high fives, fist bumps and a few complicated handshakes.

When it was all over I gathered up Stephanie, our clean laundry and retired to our room. She folded the laundry I brought up while I began packing our bags. I finished mine first because I hadn't unpacked much so it took no time at all. Then I started packing her, first her big bag where I carefully laid all her new dresses. Then her carry-on. Asking her to lay out an outfit to wear tomorrow. I finished by carefully cramming all her new shoes in the shoulder bag. Then I dragged her into the shower with me.

I purposefully got her all hot and bothered in the shower but didn't give her a release knowing she would come out and tackle me to the bed. I was right because as soon as she wrapped her hair in a towel she attacked me though I was only half dried and we did it wild and reckless on top of the covers, barely remembering a condom at the last minute. I left her panting to catch her breath and get her heartbeat under control while I got the red lace baby doll outfit and gave it to her.

"Something for you to wear tonight." I told her as I handed her the box. She lazily rolled over to her side and pulled the box closer. She carefully lifted the lid and dug through the tissue paper pulling it out and lifting it up. Someday I'm going to get her to wear something scantier than this but this is a good first step. She once again disappeared into the bathroom and came out, the red creation clinging to her in all the right places. The red silk hugged her breasts, with the white trim lace at the top and bottom accentuating her bust and legs. The stretchy red lace around the waist emphasizing her slender torso, the flair of her hip and it was just long enough to brush the tops of her thighs. I crooked my finger to her. Dressing her up was so much fun and undressing her even more so.

The second time I made love to her slowly, kissing all skin that was exposed from shoulder to shoulder, brushing the tops of her breasts with my lips then skipping down to her thighs, refusing to touch anything that was covered. I slowly kissed down to her toes and back up again memorizing her body as I went. I got all the way to the crux of her thighs and breathed my hot breath on her but still refused to touch anything that was covered. Finally, she couldn't take it anymore and the red frilly thing was thrown over her head to the floor. I smiled and continued to torment all the now exposed skin from her lips down to the edge of her panties. Where I licked all along the edge and looked up at her expectantly.

"Oh good gracious," she expelled as she quickly shimmied out of them. That was all the invitation I needed as I proceeded to pin her to the bed and feast on her. Long minutes later I was buried in her again, taking her so slowly and leisurely building us both up for a long time until we fell off the precipice together. Then I gathered her in my arms and held her tight against me never wanting to let her go. So grateful I got her back after only being taken for five minutes. Today could have ended so much worse and just the thought had my arms tightening around her. I needed all the time I could get with her, knowing I was leaving in two days. I needed the skin to skin contact, it was as if I was soaking up all of her skin into mine.

To be continued…

A/N: Everyone is safe. I wanted to write a 'happy, fun beach' chapter after all the angst. Let me know if I succeeded. Thank you all for your reviews! I appreciate them all. Someone had suggested using the offending phone for distraction and it sounded just like what Ranger would do, and he agreed but he needed Steph's help, he seriously didn't know what to write. LOL Please read and review.

As always big THANK YOU to my beta Sassysaint you add so much!

Second Big THANK YOU to my sister, Jonelle. Thank you for fixing all my many little mistakes.

Ranger's Family Album

Mother's Mother – Abuela Rosa, Father's Mother – Abuela Sanja Manoso

Mother – Maria Father – Javier

Siblings and family in age order

Leyla (35) & Richard Gonzales– Rebecca (Becky) 12, Margaret (Maggie) 10, Richard (Ricky) 7, Michael (Mikie) 5

Angelia (34) & Jordan White – Shanna 5 – Kendrick (Ricky) 3

Ricardo Carlos Manoso (32)– Ranger

Julio Manoso (30) Ex Allysa – Jacob 2

Isabella (27) & Diego Diaz – Chris 8, Shylia 6, Parker 3

Oshanna Manoso (22)

Rachel & Ron – Julie 12, Fredrico (Freddie) 9, Cassandra (Cassie) 6

Trenton & Miami Merry Men Assignments (33 Men)

Abuela Sanja – Vince, Ian

Abuela Rosa – Manuel, Gavin

Maria – Erik, Francis

Leyla – Hal, Tony

Angelia – Woody, Dillion

Isabella – Cal, Red

Oshanna – Lester, Sport

Rachel – Eddie, Pace

Julie – Junior, Scott

Stephanie – Ranger, Marc, Tiger

Extra's – Bobby, Ram, Zero, Zip

Night's – Chet, Chester, Gino, Mario, Ryan, Ramon, Billy, Cade, Simon


	24. Chapter 24 Final Day in LA

Chapter 24 Final day in LA

Friday May 21 05:30

I only woke Stephanie up once during the night, knowing she was still catching up on sleep from the night before and she would need it for the long day ahead. I got up when my watch beeped and went running in earnest today. Still burning off the stress from yesterday, I had gone over eight miles before I finally turned around.

Today was going to be stress 'free' because there was no longer a mole. The bad guys didn't know where we were and we had taken out their little local army. They would have to start from scratch recruiting people. They didn't know where we were and Stephanie was giving me perfect lines to feed to the tainted twitter account. Last night during the game I texted Skylar to set up a trip to Alaska and Tank to send someone to take pictures, photoshop Oshanna into them and feed them back to Stephanie for her to keep the ruse going.

When I got back to the house I did a hundred push-ups with my feet up on the seat of a patio lounger. Then I did a hundred single arm push-ups on both sides, followed by a five minute chair squat, a hundred lunging squats, a hundred side squats going each direction. I went inside to finish with a hundred straight backed sit ups. I could have done them in the sand, but why get all sandy when there is nice plush carpet only 15 feet away?

When I was done I headed for the third house and found Zip and Zero eating breakfast. I asked them to take Julio back to his hotel so he could clean up and get his stuff then deliver him to the theme park for a day with the family. I added Zip to Julie's and Rachel's patrol and Zero to Oshanna's detail.

When I went back inside the house my mama was setting up cold cereal for breakfast. Abuela Sanja and Rosa were helping get all the food out of the fridge, cut up fruit, set out cups of yogurt and heat up the leftovers from last night in the ovens. I told them all _buenos dias_ as I passed and went straight up the stairs. _(good morning)_

I took a quick shower and dressed for another day at the theme parks. Finally, I began the slow task of waking up Stephanie. She mumbled something incoherent and burrowed further under the covers.

"Babe" I called to her. "Good morning."

"Good morning." She mumbled with her eyes still closed.

"Babe" I shook her gently. "Time to go to Universal Studios and ride some more roller coasters."

One eye popped open, then the second and she smiled at me. "Roller coasters?"

"Yes, roller coasters, theme park and junk food all day long." Next thing I knew she was hopping out of bed and heading for the shower. I really must make sure she gets her needed eight hours of sleep, at least most of the time. Tonight it won't be happening, it will be our last night together for a while. First, we will be flying till late and then I'm going to keep her up even later and wake her up early. Maybe, at least that is the plan. I'll see what I can talk her into.

An hour later, she was up, dressed, fed and had a cup of coffee in hand. Of course, she chose left over pizza for breakfast. How that goes well with coffee I'll never understand but she happily ate it all down and went back for more.

I received a one-word text from Hector ' _Venezuela._ '

Electricity was running through the families as we prepared to go to the theme parks. Half of my family and men had just left for Disneyland. Oshanna had gone with Julio back to his hotel room and had promised to stay with him all day. Richard, Diego, Ron and Papa had the four boys. Leyla and Rachel had the older girls and Cassie with _Abuela_ Sanja joining their group.

I got Stephanie loaded up into the SUV. We didn't have to leave early today because everyone already had their passes to get in. She asked if we could stop and get her more coffee so we found a Starbucks on the way. I pulled out Oshanna's phone.

"Babe I made arrangements for one of my men to fly to Alaska, take pictures there and send them to you to post on the Instagram and Twitter accounts. Can you do that for me? For the next week post pictures and keep them guessing where we are and what we are doing?"

"Sure"

"You don't have to do too much. Just post a picture and a tweet or two a day and a couple of pictures on Instagram. Occasionally, answer a question, but if you read back through, Oshanna didn't answer all of their questions. Just a couple a day. She half ignored them so do the same."

"Okay I can do that. In fact, give me the phone and I will post something this morning." _'My brother is being a real wad. He won't let us go anywhere except out to the beach behind our hotel.'_ I watched over her shoulder confident that she could do this for me.

Because we bought our passes on-line we were allowed 'early' entrance to the park. Though by the time we arrived we were only ten minutes early. Stephanie wanted more pictures of her and us today. Since we had three other guards, Marc, Tiger and Ram with us today and the snitch was caught I felt a little better about letting my guard down and having some fun. I let Marc take our picture in front of the huge turning orb that read Universal Studios. We walked the red carpet to the huge arched entrance, got our two-day passes scanned and went through the metal detectors. Stephanie downloaded the app for her phone and I grabbed a map, not wanting to gunk up my phone with that crap.

Once again skipping the Walking Dead tour she led us past Harry Potter to the Simpsons Ride. They were just opening the ride up and we got to be in the first group of "riders". Stephanie insisted on sitting in the middle of the row, making Marc and Tiger who had led the way into the row of seats back track to sit next to her. This upset the young attendant, named Chris, who kept trying to usher her to the end but when we, her four men in black, gave him a disapproving glare he gave up and started ushering people to come around and fill the row from the other side.

She screamed several times during the 'ride' and gave me a very disapproving stare as I sat motionless and un-reacting next to her. When we got done with the ride she was furiously tapping away on her phone and led the way down the escalators to Julie! She hugged all the girls like she hadn't seen them in a year. Said 'Hi' to Rachel, Leyla and _Abuela_ Sanja and then loudly asked the girls what they wanted to do because she was tired of her four-man entourage that didn't talk, didn't scream on the rides, didn't care what she did and just followed her blank faced through the park.

Marc and Bobby probably would have been a little more interactive if I hadn't been there but they were just following my lead and all I kept saying was "Babe what do you want to do?" I didn't realize we were that bad till she was so animatedly talking and interacting with the girls.

Down in this part of the park was Transformers 3-D. Stephanie was talking excitedly with the girls while leading the way up the stairs and through several tunnels until we got to the VIP express ride cut off. We were ushered the right way by workers dressed in uniforms like army fatigues. Wrong color but close. We eventually reached the final tunnels that were designed to look like an underground bunker with control consoles and flashing lights like it was an emergency and we got 3-D glasses. I should have expected the glasses since 3-D was in the name but I was hoping this was an actual ride and not a stadium experience.

We had thirteen security personnel and eight family members and I couldn't figure out which group I was supposed to count myself with. Technically I was head of the security detail but today I wanted to be Stephanie's fiancé and Julie's dad and have a little bit of fun with them. So I recounted myself with nine family members and twelve on the security team.

There were twelve seats to the ride so I sent five men ahead and four men behind. I rode next to Stephanie with everyone else fitting in the last three rows. Leyla and _Abeula_ Sanja sat with us in our row and we pulled down the bar, pleased that this was an actual ride and that everyone fit on it.

We were riding in one of the Transformers and went through a maze of tunnels with 3-D video and lots of other Transformers fighting on the screens. We got knocked around and the car bumped and rocked as we moved along. The best two parts were Megatron shooting us, as we got heat and flames our way, and a part where we fall and Bumblebee catches us. The fall was pretty good with air rushing at our faces, and everyone including Stephanie was screaming.

The whole 3-D video was pretty good with different Decepticons reaching out to grab us and debris flying at us. When the whole car got sucked through Devasator it was an optical illusion trick that was really well done. It was occasionally hard to tell what were the real tunnels we were moving through and what was just on the screen with sound effects. It was funny to see a 'dead' Megatron at the end. The music throughout was from the movies and the whole experience was well done. Stephanie and the girls really enjoyed it screaming the whole way through and I might have smiled several times.

One of the best parts for me and I felt stupid acknowledging it was the big thank you Optimus Prime gives at the end. You get so little recognition in Special Forces sometimes for missions where you put your life on the line. Just a 'good job soldier' and a pat on the shoulder. It was actually nice to be thanked in such a profound way. Actually I think it was because he called us freedom fighters and that was what one of my COs used to call us. The real men behind the scenes that fought for freedom.

The girls began walking around back to the beginning.

"Jewels where are we going?"

"Come on Dad, that was the best ride besides Harry Potter. We have to do that again."

"Yeah" seconded Becky and Maggie.

We trooped through the shortcut one of the workers pointed out to us, took the express ride pass and came out almost to where they load the ride again. The second time through was even better than the first and I chuckled to myself as the girls and Stephanie screamed again the whole way through.

After the ride there was a small congregation of people waiting around the corner and the girls asked what was going on. Someone told them that Optimus Prime was going to make an appearance. We waited too, the girls making their guards crazy as they got out of protection range, winding their way through people, getting up to the front of the crowd where the red velvet ropes kept everybody back. Eventually there was the sound effects of a transformer transforming and two big doors opened and a ten foot tall Optimus Prime came out. He did his spiel about how each of us had to save the planet. He then introduced Bumble Bee and they started taking pictures with the crowd.

At first it was only children going up to get their pictures taken but Stephanie took my hand and dragged me in line behind Julie and the girls. Finally the girls got up there and Leyla and Rachel were all snapping pictures as they posed. Stephanie told them to wait up there and we joined them in the pictures. Stephanie of course had handed her phone off to Marc. Stephanie told me to smile and I gave her my 'I'm thinking about smiling' smile.

She then told the girls she wanted one with just me and she looked at my face and told me again to smile. I gave my little half smile and she elbowed me and told me to smile for real like I was on vacation so I pulled her into my side and smiled like she wanted me to for the picture. Then just to annoy her I slammed my menacing blank face back down and she elbowed me again. I knew that having a trip with my family and Julie was a once in a lifetime event and I felt myself actually wanting to enjoy the day with them.

The girls decided we had to do the Transformers ride again but this time they wanted to go through the line like normal people and walk all the tunnels. As we went through, the girls stopped to watch the videos in each room. We found out that we were actually new recruits. Ratchet came on to tell us the history of the Transformers. We learned that they are fighting over the All-Spark and our mission is to protect it. Turns out our ride is E-vack one of the Transformers and we are carrying the All-Spark to safety.

I know I bought these express passes because I imagined my family trapped in lines where they were sitting targets. I personally appreciate skipping the lines. But it seems that they do a lot to inform you and prepare you for the ride when you go through the way you are supposed to. At least this time of year the lines are so short I didn't mind going through them, as it was less than a fifteen minute wait.

As we left Transformers Julie, Cassie, Becky and Maggie broke out in a run and my men were right there with them.

"Come on" Becky yelled back at us and we all started jogging behind her.

"Why are we running?" I questioned.

"We have a lot of rides to do today." Maggie explained.

"And I want to ride all the good ones twice." Julie supported.

"We're going to Revenge of the Mummy next." Becky clarified.

"We're going to do all the ones in this part of the park before we go back up to the main level." Julie explained and laid out the plan.

When we got to the Mummy ride, we walked past an endless maze of metal bars that I couldn't imagine waiting in for hours out in the heat like so many tourists do during the summer. Then a handy employee ushered us to the express line and we were dumped out minutes from the beginning of the ride.

The walls here were blocks like the inside of a tomb, lit with eerie glowing low lights, covered in skeletons and made creepy with a scary soundtrack. This time I sent all nine men in the car before ours, and loaded up the family in one car together. Once again the seats sat four across and I held Stephanie's hand, letting her get in first so she could be on the outside and sat next to her. As we entered the beginning of the ride the effects here were not all video, many were real animatronics, moving mummies acting like they are crawling out to get you.

I could feel the car tracking upwards and the fact that everyone was secured in separately with a harness should have been a clue, still I was surprised when we crested the top and it turned into a real 'old fashioned' roller coaster ride flying downwards, spinning us up, over and around. Then coming to a sudden stop and sending us backwards through the ride. Again we were turned onto another track that we went backwards through.

All the while the scene was lit with low and sometimes flashing lights. It was riding a roller coaster in the dark, nothing I had ever done before. Finally we were turned onto another track and away we went, forwards this time. The ride lasted longer than I expected as we stopped and turned multiple times, each time going down a different stretch of track.

When we came to the end my men were waiting for us and Becky and Maggie led the way back to the beginning. The girls loved the roller coaster and happily rode it two more times. I thought this was the best protection detail for my men this entire trip, being forced to ride roller coasters over and over. Many of my men had big smiles on their faces as they happily led the girls back around to the beginning.

The Jurassic Park Ride was next and the men led the girls through the jungle like foliage to the entrance. Then through the express pass line to the beginning. I could see immediately that this was another old fashioned roller coaster on rails and Stephanie and the girls were excited to ride it. Here we climbed into boats and Stephanie wanted to be on the outside again so I let her get in first.

The boats went up a short way and then were set loose floating down a gentle river where a soothing voice talks about the flowing river. A big door opens and it welcomed us to Jurassic Park, where there were big animatronic dinosaurs moving about. Then the ride entered a cave amongst a spraying mist and then out to another section of park inhabited by more kinds of moving dinosaurs. I was impressed by the high wired fence that surrounded everything really making it look like the movie.

The ride went through another section where dinosaurs had gotten loose and there was a wrecked boat that one escaped dinosaur was eating. We passed by a section of more escaped dinosaurs and a wrecked car that dropped off the wall into the water. Finally the ride started climbing up the typical hill that is very high and there were more animatronic dinosaurs coming out to get you.

But the hill only had a little drop and then you are floating down the river again where there was a T-rex trying to eat you. For the finale the ride has the big drop that you have been waiting for but that is it and the ride is over.

"Man that sucked." Becky said as we walked away.

"That was a very short roller coaster." Rachel rationalized.

"No that was a disappointment." Julie said.

"Definitely did not live up to its hype." Stephanie clarified.

"I don't want to do it again." Maggie said "It was boring."

"I agree." Julie said.

"Me too". Becky agreed.

"What do you girls want to do next?" I asked them. The girls were obviously very disappointed and I can say that if I had waited any length of time to ride this ride I would be very disappointed too.

"I want to go on the Simpson's ride." Leyla interjected. "We never got to it yesterday."

"Me too" agreed Becky and Maggie.

"I do too, but I want to finish down here first and I want to go on the Transformers ride again. It's like the second best ride in the park." Julie said.

Everyone agreed and we went back to Transformers two more times before leaving this area of the park. My men led the way up the escalators and quickly found the Simpson's ride that we had already been to. I noticed that the girls were checking their phones where they too had downloaded the app.

We got handed 3-D glasses for the ride and the girls were anxious to ride it. This time Stephanie sat next to the girls and was like another person, laughing and talking and screaming her way through. The ride takes you through Krusty the Clown's new roller coaster with the Simpson family, while Sideshow Bob sabotages the ride trying to kill them. I had been on this ride too many times for what is was, but it was fun to watch Stephanie and the girls as they screamed their way through it.

The girls didn't seem disappointed that this wasn't a real ride and of course they had to ride it again. This time going through the regular line to get the whole backstory and history of Sideshow Bob and why he hated Krusty the Clown and the Simpsons so much he would blow up the ride while they were on it.

"What do you want to do next?" I asked the group as we turned in our glasses and exited the ride.

"The studio tour is in this part of the park." Rachel encouraged.

"Sure I've heard it's a must do." Julie added.

"I want to see The Fast and the Furious Supercharged and it's over there too." Becky said.

"I heard you get to see the studios and hear all about how they make the movies." Maggie stated.

While the girls started walking ahead of us following the maps on their phones Stephanie began talking to Leyla, Rachel and _Abuela_ Sanja. Probably more than she had this entire trip. I couldn't help but eavesdrop as they discussed what they were doing.

"It's really nice to spend the day with your girls." Stephanie started. "Carlos and I had a lot of fun with them last week on the cruise and it is great to do that again."

"A lot has changed for you this week. You got engaged to Carlos and you're going to be Julie's stepmom. So I am glad to spend this time with you as well." Rachel said.

"Oh no!" Stephanie clarified. "I'm nobody's step-mom. I can be her friend and confidant, but I don't really know how to mother anybody and you do such a great job I don't even want to try."

"Well Carlos asked if Julie can come up and visit sometime, like maybe over summer break, and honestly I'll feel better about sending her up there knowing you will be there for her to hang out with and talk to. We all know Carlos isn't much of a talker." Rachel said.

"Sure, that I can do and if she comes we can visit with Maggie and Becky too." Stephanie said.

"I know the girls would love that. I always have to work during the summer and the girls just hang out at Mama's and Papa's and _Abuela_ Rosa watches them. I'm sure they would rather have some fun days hanging out with you and Julie." Leyla said.

"Maybe we can get the kids together and go to Six Flags, or Point Pleasant and the beach. Maybe even do both if she comes for a week or more." Stephanie said.

"Yeah Julie loves roller coasters if you haven't noticed. Universal Studios is the highlight of this trip for her."

"For Becky and Maggie too. They don't often get a chance to go to a theme park. This is an unexpected vacation made even more special with Julie and both _Abuelas_ here. They don't get to see you, _Abuela_ Sanja that often."

"And I miss seeing the girls more. Maybe I will try to come up this summer as well and spend more time with my _nietos_." _(grandkids)_

"Another unexpected thing is how well all the girls are getting along. With teenage girls you never know how well they are going to mesh and they are getting along wonderfully." Leyla said.

"Yes and I am appreciating how well they are including Cassie in everything. She's quiet and doesn't say a lot but I know she really likes being able to hang out with Becky and Maggie. They are so much older she really looks up to them." Rachel said.

"They are still really good girls and easy to get along with. We aren't having any pre-teen angst yet."

"Honestly I have always felt bad that Julie has never had the opportunity to get to know Carlos' side of the family better. This trip has really given her the chance to meet her cousins and get to know her Aunts and Uncles. Before this trip she had only met _Abuela_ Rosa once. So this has been a rare unexpected blessing for her to get to know everyone like this." Rachel said.

"Well we have enjoyed getting to know her as well and Freddie too. My boys really like having another boy their age to hang out with." Leyla said.

I listened carefully to the women as I walked along on the other side of Stephanie. It was nice to see them interacting. I had never really gotten the chance to see Stephanie hang out with the other women in my family besides Oshanna and Angelia.

"So what does every one want to do before we leave the park? I don't want anyone to miss out on anything they really want to do." Stephanie asked the women.

"Well I wanted to do the Studio Tour and see the Fast and the Furious ride too." Rachel said.

"That's about the same for me." Leyla added. "I have heard the WaterWorld show is good so if we get a chance I would like to see it."

" _Abuela_ Sanja, what do you want to do while we are here at the park?" Stephanie asked her.

"I don't care what rides we go on. I just really wanted to spend more time with my _nietas_. I only see Becky and Maggie once a year at Christmas and I've only seen Julie a few times in her whole life, so I couldn't pass up this opportunity to spend the day with them." She explained. _(granddaughters)_

"I'm sorry for not getting Julie over to see you more often. She has such a busy schedule with school, soccer and flute lessons." Rachel explained.

"I would like to see her but your whole family too. I should have you over for dinner or something once a month so I can get to know all of you and so Julie won't feel so out of place when she comes over." _Abuela_ Sanja offered.

"That would be nice. I would like her to get to know you better too." Rachel said.

"I would also like to invite you to some of the Manoso family gatherings. Maybe once or twice a year. We have a lot of family in Miami and many of them saw Julie when she was born but haven't seen her since and ask about her often."

"Sure," Rachel said, "that would be nice."

They all enjoyed walking over the long bridge that led to the ride and gave a bird's eye view of Los Angeles. We got to the line and were ushered to the waiting points for the tram. Each tram pulls four cars and each car holds about twenty five people. Still the line was so long it took two trams till we could get on. In line we were passed 3-D glasses and I was starting to think they needed to pass these out at the gate and just give you a pair to carry around all day. We got on the first car and with twenty one of us filled most of the car up.

The seats were four seats across and Stephanie sat in the end seat again, going against my instincts that wanted to put her in the middle to keep her better protected. I had all the men sit behind us and let the girls sit in the front row. I was pleased when Leyla and _Abuela_ Sanja sat next to us again while Rachel sat one row back. We had our own personal tour guide, named Debra, with a microphone head set that talked us through the tour.

Along the side of the road were posters of some of the famous movies made on the Universal Studios lot. I don't honestly know what I was expecting because the pictures I had seen showed different action and live movies being filmed but I didn't realize until we left the grounds that this was a tour of the real Universal Studios, the lots and stages where they filmed their movies.

They had a lot of sound stages, who knew they needed so many? The New York metro lot is the façade of large buildings made to look like New York City. They also had façades of small buildings that look like any generic city. We drove around a little more and then they drove us into a manmade cave. It kind of looked like an old fashion wooden tunnel for a train but the walls inside look like rock.

A short way in it became totally dark and I watched the driver and the outside to see what he was using to guide himself while we moved forward in the pitch blackness. They welcomed us to Skull Island and it was time to put on our glasses then the walls came alive with a movie of dinosaurs that made it look like we were still moving as they chased us and came close to attacking us. Now obviously it was a movie but the girls still screamed and squealed like it was somehow real.

After that King Kong showed up and wrestled with the T-rex that was going to eat us and after throwing it over the tram and jumping over the tram himself the tram fell and the T-rex almost got us, but King Kong saved us again. Finally he took down the T-rex for good and roared and beat on his chest like all good giant gorillas do.

We drove through their collection of famous cars but since I'm not a major movie fan I didn't recognize most of them. Following that we went through part of the set for Jurassic Park where they had some dinosaurs jump out at us for good measure. We went through old Mexico, as they called it, where we got to see some of the special effects they use to make stormy weather and then experience a flash flood.

We parked for several minutes in a quiet zone where they are filming. The purpose for this was lost on me. Then we drove into a sound studio set up like an underground subway where we got to experience an earthquake, including shooting electrical sparks and flaring flames, followed by another flash flood. I was impressed that they could do this with four large trams.

I enjoyed the fake Jaws attack and how loudly the girls screamed when it lunged out of the water But I was not impressed with the black charger from the Fast and the Furious on the side of the road coupled with the threat that Dominic Torreto was loose on the back lots with the FBI chasing him. I laughed hard inside over Norman Bates carrying a dead woman out of the hotel and putting her in the trunk of his car before chasing the trams with a knife.

The crashed 747 airplane scene from War of the Worlds was impressive for how big it was and that it is still preserved. Agent Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) from the Fast and the Furious comes on the video to say we're all in danger and they're taking us to a secure location. The girls look fascinated more than afraid and Stephanie is grinning widely anxious for what is next. I have to appreciate the lengths Universal has gone through to make this ride entertaining.

Inside the next warehouse is the Fast and the Furious adventure movie. It was better than King Kong. I don't know why they list them as separate rides when they are only part of this one. The movie really made it seem like the tram was moving, how they make it 360 degrees I don't know but it was showing out both sides of the tram and out the front. Plus it was being broadcast separately for each car of the tram. Apparently, it is the world's largest 3D experience with walls over 40 feet high.

The best part was when the tram went off road and felt like it was falling. I seem to really like the falling scenes today. It is one reason I always liked jumping out of planes. Feeling that free fall and the world rushing by you is always such a trip. Fortunately by the time we made it out of the last warehouse, it had been almost an hour and we were back at the theme park.

We moved on to the Harry Potter Adventure, this time through the girls had their camera phones at the ready and were taking pictures of everything and themselves with everything as well. The famous Hogwarts train, each of the very famous shops and then in front of The Three Broomsticks where they declared we were having lunch. Ram, Bobby, Junior, Ian, Scott and I led the way through the line and I told the lady behind the register we were a group of twenty one and I was paying for everyone to the last man in black.

Standing in line I could see how ridiculous we looked, thirteen large men guarding five targets. With our shorts and tank tops we at least looked a little like we were on vacation too, but the silent brooding stares and constantly shifting high-alert stances told another story. There was no denying these men were working, not here for the rides. Maybe once this whole mess was over I could have Stephanie give the men lessons on relaxing and looking less militant so they could conform to fit in more situations.

There were a lot healthier food options here with roast chicken, corn, roast potatoes and salad! OMG a glorious roast chicken salad. I had salad last night after being without but it was just lettuce and croutons with Italian dressing. This was a real roast chicken salad and I was in hog heaven. Stephanie got the chicken and ribs platter but instead of roasted potatoes she upgraded to the seasoned wedge fries. Julie and the other girls got the roasted smoked chicken platters. After asking me specifically they all ordered frozen Butterbeers, pumpkin juices and gilly waters, explaining that they were just here for the day and had to try them all.

Leyla and Rachel decided that they wanted to try different things and ordered the Shepard's pie dinner and Cornish pastries and agreed to share. Several pairs of my men got together and split the four-person family feast. It was just the right amount of food for two over-sized musclebound monstrosities. I smiled as I listened to the teens argue about whether the frozen Butterbeer was better than the original.

After the family feasted the girls were too full to go on rides and all wanted to buy scarves for their various houses. Becky declared that she wanted to be like Hermione and got the gold and red. Maggie and Cassie wanted to be Hufflepuff because one of the Hufflepuff boys in the movie also played the vampire in the latest books they were reading. Stephanie was leaning towards getting the green scarf representing the Slytherin house, remarking on how she had a thing for the misunderstood bad boys, but Julie was trying to talk her into choosing Ravenclaw.

Julie just had to have the blue and finally talked Stephanie into buying a blue one as well, even though there were no cold winters in Miami requiring a scarf and in all the years I've known her I've never seen Stephanie wear a scarf. Julie promptly reminded me that these were souvenirs so I told Rachel and Leyla that I would buy the girls whatever they wanted but that they had to deal with lugging it around the park, loading it in their luggage and hauling the stuff through the rest of the trip and back home. They looked through everything, approving and vetoing, and keeping the girls from going too far overboard. Rachel knew that each shop would allow us to leave our items with them so they could be sent up front for pick-up at the end of our day. We needed empty hands before we went back to the rides.

After shopping the girls wanted to go back to the Harry Potter Hidden Journey ride. As we stood in the much smaller line I listened to Julie and the girls make small talk with four teen boys in front of them. The boys were filled with excitement as they explained to the girls that this ride was the best in the park and they had already been on it four times today.

I considered having my men get rid of them, but Stephanie convinced me there was no harm in letting them ride rides together. After Harry Potter the four boys followed us to ride the Hippogriff. At Stephanie's stern look I had four of my men ride in the car ahead of us so the boys could ride in the same car as the girls. The group of teen boys tagged along with us and I watched them warily. Finally after enjoying the singing frogs the girls decided that they wanted to leave this area to finish the rest of the park. While the boys, realizing they were never going to get the girls alone and that we were leaving California tonight, went back to the Harry Potter ride.

Becky and Maggie led the way to the Despicable Me ride and the girls all loved it. They were laughing at all the jokes, screaming and laughing on the ride, all the while with big smiles on their faces. After riding it the girls announced that they wanted to see the shows. I couldn't believe all the rides we had ridden in one day. It is amazing how fast you get through the park when you don't have to wait in long lines.

WaterWorld was an interesting show, the pyrotechnics were impressive and the cast did a great job with their fake fights. They really looked real. The boaters, jet skiers and stunt men were world class doing lots of stunts in a small space. But what fascinated me was their mic technology, small enough that you couldn't see them but completely waterproof as they all went in the water multiple times and they were still working. I would have to find out more.

The Special Effects show was entertaining and educational for the girls, who have never thought about the special effects much less wonder how they do them. They had stunt actors show how they beat each other up with out actually hurting each other. They showed how they do some kinds of visual effects and how they put sound effects to already shot film. They 'cut' a girl's arm with a 'blood knife', a special effects tool that releases blood from the knife's blade. They showed motion capture where they use a special suit to move, the computer captures the movements, and you can create a digital character and make him move however you want. Then they did the best thing and actually set a guy on fire. As cool as it was to see I wouldn't want to be the guy set on fire six shows a day.

The stunt show was good and impressed the girls but what they really loved, and how I knew I was with a bunch of little girls and not boys was the animal trick show. They loved the whole show from beginning to end. They loved the birds. Especially the one that would fly to the person selected, take a dollar bill out of their hand and fly it to the trainer. Then the trainer gave the bill back to the bird and it flew it back to the person. They had a lot of animals that crossed the stage without a trainer and exited the other side through a variety of exits. They had ducks, geese and even a chicken which is impressive, I didn't know chickens could be that smart. Several different cats, a rat and even a whole line of guinea pigs that trooped across the stage except the last one that looked lost and took several extra minutes to finally make his way to the other side and off the stage.

They had several dogs come on the stage and do different tricks. One staged trick had a young volunteer boy ask the dog to go off stage and bring back an article of clothing. He brought back a hat the first time but a bra the second, and the trainer made a big deal about it being a family show so another dog came dancing out on two feet, took the bra in his mouth and danced back off the stage again. I can't say it wasn't cute but this was not the show to interest big strong men in black. The girls oohed and ahhed, pointed and laughed. They wanted to watch the show again but Stephanie's stomach was announcing that it was dinner time.

As we prepared to leave the park we stopped and picked up all of our shopping bags and though I had paid for the bill I hadn't realized how much stuff they had bought. We headed over to the City Walk area to check out the restaurants and shops, allowing everyone several dinner choices. After some debate Rachel, Leyla and Stephanie decided on Bubba Gump's Shrimp for our meal. The teens all got fried shrimp with fries. Steph ordered the Shrimp Shack Mac n Cheese. Rachel and Leyla both got Jenny's Catch with lobster.

 _Abuela_ Sanja loves seafood, I knew from growing up in her house, but she eats it Cuban style and it took her a few minutes to decide. She finally ordered the Bourbon Street Mahi Mahi with a cup of Shrimp Gumbo while I happily ordered the Pear and Berry Salad. A couple of men got the grilled Seafood Trio. Several got the ribs and shrimp. But the favorite was Forrest's Seafood feast. A full meal with fried shrimp, beer battered fish, fries and hush pups.

Everyone was stuffed and much to Stephanie's chagrin we left without ordering dessert. I froze when I heard Stephanie yell and immediately scanned the area, ready to strike. After finding no potential enemies I looked back at Stephanie. She was nearly panting as she looked in the window of the Voodoo donut shop. She gave me a pleading look and I nodded as she went inside followed closely by two of the guys. The girls seeing where she went immediately followed with Leyla, Rachel and _Abuela_ Sanja all trailing behind.

Voodoo Donuts was a donut lover's dream. The girls started calling out the exciting toppings on every donut. I chuckled when I watched both Bobby and Marc lick their lips when Julie announced there was a bacon maple donut. I encouraged the girls to pick out a few dozen to bring back to the plane. I noticed Leyla and Steph giggling near one of the display cases and went over to join them. They were staring at a chocolate frosted donut that I quickly realized resembled a penis with a ball sack.

"Is that what…" I didn't get a chance to finish.

"It's one of the specialty donuts, it's called Cock and Balls'." Stephanie laughed.

"Babe"

We left the store with six pink boxes of donuts. The girls and Stephanie each ate a donut now and I pretended to look the other way when Marc and Bobby wolfed down their maple bacon donuts. Steph moved up beside me and I surveyed the donut in her hand. It was shaped like a person with frosting to decorate the eyes, nose, and mouth. It was a puffy glazed donut with chocolate frosting and a pretzel stick protruding from the heart area.

"Voodoo?" I asked.

She nodded as she took another bite. "Oh my gosh."

She tilted the donut to show me the red jelly that was oozing out of the area where the heart would be. I shook my head as I watched Stephanie take another bite before licking the chocolate off of her lips. I would have loved to clean her lips off myself but it wasn't the time or place. I would have her tonight, there was no doubt about that.

At 19:45 I sent a text instructing all of my men to herd their charges towards the exit. I reminded them to make sure everyone had eaten before getting to the airport and if not to stop for food before getting to the plane; that we had a four-hour flight ahead of us. I had been receiving texts all day from my men and it sounded like the Disney group had a good day and stayed together through the park. The boys had ridden every ride and seen all the shows. But they saw WaterWorld and the Special Effects shows twice. I had received updates from Lester all day giving me the whereabouts of Oshanna. He knew I didn't want to see her and I occasionally sent him texts of where we were going so he could steer clear of us.

On the way to the airport I texted Skylar to have the plane readied tomorrow for a weekend of flying. No flight plans were to be filed; we were planning to leave about twelve. I wanted the pilots only, no Emile or Sabine, but with a fully stocked kitchen along with two meals per seat and as many snack foods and drinks as they could fit. She texted back that she did it already but didn't give the pilots the destination. I replied to her text explaining that they would get the exact location when I boarded tomorrow but that obviously we were going back to the mainland.

Once at the airport the thirty-three men had the luggage quickly loaded and the back seats returned to their vehicles. Nightshift had been there waiting for us and had already unloaded the seats. My family was quickly seated inside the plane, many of them picking the same seats they had ridden in before.

I gave Marc my ID and credit card and told him to take some men to return all the SUVs because I wasn't up for dealing with more inane employees. Once everyone was seated and while we waited for the men to get back I had Emile and Sabine take the donuts and offer them for everyone to eat.

Cheers went up around the plane when the captain announced our destination was Honolulu, Hawaii. After takeoff and once the seatbelt sign was turned off I stood and addressed my family.

"This next week you are all booked on Koana Cruise Lines for a week long island-hopping cruise. We will check into the airport hotel so we don't have to drive anywhere. Tonight stay with the group till you are securely in your rooms. Don't unpack, we will be leaving in the morning to board the ship around 10:30 am. This will give you time to sleep in and order room service for breakfast before we have to leave. I will be flying back to the mainland to handle some business for a few days. Marc will be in charge on the cruise. Listen to him and do anything he says."

"On the cruise ship we have an entire hallway reserved. My extra dayshift and nightshift men will be guarding that hall. Stay with your assigned men at all times on the ship. Excursions off the ship are tentatively authorized in groups of two guarded women together or more. I don't want anyone going off the ship alone. If there is any trouble at the ports of call you will have to stay on the ship the rest of the trip. I shouldn't be tied up that long; hopefully I'll be back midweek and rejoin the cruise at whatever port you are in."

I debated what I was going to say next, I hated asking my family to lie for me but short term it was the most expedient way. "If you are ever asked, I stayed with the group the entire trip. There will be photos of me on the cruise everyday so don't expect to be asked but just in case you are, I stayed with you the whole time."

My family nodded to me knowing this was important and then, seeing I was done, went back to talking to each other and playing on their electronics.

While I was talking, Mama and Leyla moved to the same row as Stephanie and pulled out their phones and computers. When I got done talking Mama moved into my seat engaging Stephanie in conversation.

"You haven't been on the Pinterest page for your wedding or made any comments all week so we just wanted to ask you a few questions." My mama started and Stephanie groaned and rolled her eyes.

To be continued.…

A/N: Thank you all for your reviews! Another fun 'happy' chapter on vacation with the family. Please read and review.

As always big THANK YOU to my beta Sassysaint you add so much!

Second Big THANK YOU to my sister, Jonelle. Thank you for fixing all my many little mistakes.

Ranger's Family Album

Mother's Mother – Abuela Rosa, Father's Mother – Abuela Sanja Manoso

Mother – Maria Father – Javier

Siblings and family in age order

Leyla (35) & Richard Gonzales– Rebecca (Becky) 12, Margaret (Maggie) 10, Richard (Ricky) 7, Michael (Mikie) 5

Angelia (34) & Jordan White – Shanna 5 – Kendrick (Ricky) 3

Ricardo Carlos Manoso (32)– Ranger

Julio Manoso (30) Ex Allysa – Jacob 2

Isabella (27) & Diego Diaz – Chris 8, Shylia 6, Parker 3

Oshanna Manoso (22)

Rachel & Ron – Julie 12, Fredrico (Freddie) 9, Cassandra (Cassie) 6

Trenton & Miami Merry Men Assignments (33 Men)

Abuela Sanja – Vince, Ian

Abuela Rosa – Manuel, Gavin

Maria – Erik, Francis

Leyla – Hal, Tony

Angelia – Woody, Dillion

Isabella – Cal, Red

Oshanna – Lester, Sport

Rachel – Eddie, Pace

Julie – Junior, Scott

Stephanie – Ranger, Marc, Tiger

Extra's – Bobby, Ram, Zero, Zip

Night's – Chet, Chester, Gino, Mario, Ryan, Ramon, Billy, Cade, Simon


	25. Chapter 25 Planning a Wedding

Chapter 25 Planning a Wedding Ugh!

 _While I was talking, Mama and Leyla moved to the same row as Stephanie and pulled out their phones and computers. When I got done talking Mama moved into my seat engaging Stephanie in conversation._

" _You haven't been on the Pinterest page for your wedding or made any comments all week so we just wanted to ask you a few questions." My mama started and Stephanie groaned and rolled her eyes._

Friday May 21 21:30

"Oh I don't care about the decorations-" Stephanie tried to be polite.

"Dear I guess your mother doesn't have your number because she has been posting questions on Pinterest."

"I called her from Carlos' phone. I guess she doesn't have that number." She said the defeat obvious on her face.

"Well let's start there."

"Mama" I interrupted. "Can we switch chairs? Babe let me sit by the window."

"Sure Carlos" she said as she got up. Isabella slid over to the window seat and let Mama sit next to her in the aisle. Stephanie stood and let me move into the window seat and then she sat down a little defeated next to me and leaned over to my mama.

"Well it seems there were several dates available for the church. The first dates she has listed are Friday August 29 at 6 pm and Saturday September 26 at 10 am. Three dates in October, the 16th at 2pm but she notes that this is close to your birthday or the 23rd at 6 pm or the 30th again at 2pm. She notes here that there are more dates in November but that is risking snow."

"Oh I don't know. I was expecting an afternoon wedding. A six pm wedding means we need to have dinner and that's just so late everyone will be starving and anxious for it to be over. 10 am is early. The 16th is only 4 days after my birthday. And the 30th is too close to Halloween."

"September 26 at 10 am." I tell them.

"Are you sure?" Stephanie asks me.

"Babe if we get married early, then we can have a lunch time reception, that will be over by early afternoon meaning we can get to the airport and take a decent flight to where ever we are going for our honeymoon." Besides the sooner we get this over with the fewer months our mothers can drive her crazy. "That gives four months to plan the wedding. I also don't have a problem with a 6 pm wedding on August 29th. We can have a lovely dinner buffet with all your favorite foods and some of my families favorite Cuban dishes. We can have a nice evening reception, with dancing and cake. I will take you some place local for our first night and we can fly out the next day for our final honeymoon destination."

She turned to me. "So where are we going for the honeymoon?" She was very curious.

"Honestly Babe the honeymoon is not yet planned. It will probably be somewhere tropical where you can run around in a bathing suit and sarong. Somewhere warm. But know this it is going to be a surprise. You don't get to know till we get there, or get to the plane to fly there."

"But that won't work. How do I pack if I don't know where we are going?"

"I'll have Ella pack a bag for you. In fact I'll have her buy all new clothes for you to wear so you can't go in your closet, see what is missing and figure out where we are going from there."

"But you promise some place tropical?"

"I promise some place warm you can run around in a bikini." I said out loud and I leaned over to her ear and whispered, "or in nothing at all." I gave her my wolfish 'I'm going to eat you alive' grin.

"Well Friday at 6 pm is not so good for us because we would all have to take the day off work. So I'll tell her Saturday September 26th at 10 am. She posts here that then she will work on the reception once we have the church booked."

"Okay." Stephanie said.

"Next. We need to figure out your wedding style. There is a quiz to help you figure it out. 1. Are you getting married in a Church?"

"Yes" Stephanie said on a sigh.

"2. Where is your dream reception? On a beach, Under some trees, In a garden, In a restaurant, In a ballroom, In a theater?"

"Indoors, wherever there is enough room."

"It's a quiz Stephanie," my sister said. "You have to choose one place."

Stephanie rolled her eyes, "Fine, a restaurant."

"3. Which word best describes your wedding day? Fairytale, Elegant, Romantic, Classic, Fun, Glamorous?"

"Well I would say Elegant and Romantic."

"You only get to choose one." My mother pushed.

"Romantic." Stephanie answered.

"4. Which type of bouquet do you envision? A tropical display, bold dramatic flowers in deep hues, a loose bouquet with wildflowers and succulents, heirloom roses and peonies, a sleek bouquet of roses, lilies, and mums, or a mixed bouquet?

"White, blue, and black flowers and feathers, and ribbons with some blue or black hearts in it."

"Bold and dramatic it is."

"5. What kind of food do you want at your reception? Traditional cuisine; 5-course meal; snack foods: popcorn, donuts, cake; your favorite finger foods: sliders, mini-sandwiches, chocolate fountain; homemade pies, pastries, and desserts; a charcuterie board." My mother continued.

"Well I liked what Carlos said. A buffet lunch of our favorite foods and Cuban cuisine. Have some snack type finger foods for when everyone is assembling but then once we start a full buffet." Stephanie answered. I am realizing that Stephanie may have more ideas about what she wants and this interrogation is actually a good thing, as I take Stephanie's hand and give it a supportive squeeze.

Just then Sabine and Emile came through with their cart offering drinks, snacks, ear phones, pillows and masks. Stephanie got a Coke and a Snickers bar.

"6. How many guests are you expecting? 50 to 100; 100 to 150, 150 to 200, 200 to 250, 250 or more?"

"Oh, I don't know. I want to say just family and friends. I don't see them much but the Plum side of the family is really big, say fifty to sixty people for my family. I haven't kept up with all my cousins and how many kids they have. I don't know how big your family is. Then we'll have to see, I don't really have a lot of close friends but I have a lot of acquaintances. There are all the Merry Men and the police department. I have a couple of skips that are friends and would just feel left out if not invited and my mother has a lot of friends that she would want to invite."

"Well let's start with how big do you want the wedding to be?"

"Honestly I would be happy with a beach wedding with just my close family and a few friends. I would be happy with a justice of the peace. I would be happy going to Las Vegas and sending my family and friends pictures. But that is because I hate the fuss and bother of a large wedding. My mother would never be happy with me running off to get married or not getting married in the Church. She and my grandmother still go to Mass every Sunday. My sister ran off and my mother nagged her till she did a little ceremony with Father Charles. So, if I don't have a church wedding I'll never hear the end of it and that's not worth a lifetime of nagging."

"Yes, we go to Mass too. I know you want God's blessings on your marriage and if you ever want your kids baptized you need to get married in the Church."

"I know, I accept that this needs to be a church wedding."

"Well the Escalante family is large, over 70 people but only about half of them still live in Newark. Javier's family is about thirty, many of them live in Miami but saw Carlos growing up in his teen years so some of them may come. Carlos, you're paying for it. How many guests? How big do you want this wedding?"

"I'm like Stephanie. I would be happy running off to Las Vegas. It is the end result that matters to me. But since we are doing the Church thing, we have to invite all of the family and a lot of my men would want to be there. That's roughly 200 people. Let's go with the two-hundred fifty or more. I don't care who comes to the wedding. But I only want people that are happy for us and wishing us well at the reception. Side note: we can have some alcohol at the reception but it gets cut off before the cake is cut. Give everyone an hour or two to sober up."

"Two-hundred fifty. Everyone is invited. We will start two running totals. First the number of invitations and second the number of local people actually coming."

"7. How big is your bridal party? How many bridesmaids are you going to have?"

"Oh I don't know. Mary Lou was my maid of honor before and I had a bunch of friends from high school and college that were my bridesmaids the first time. Julie is definitely going to be in the bridal party. I'm thinking of asking Lula to be my maid of honor this time and Mary Lou and Valerie if she wants to be."

Leyla sat forward, "have you thought about us at all? I know Oshanna would love to be in the wedding. And I know you don't know us as well but we all love the chance to walk down the aisle."

"I hadn't thought about that. It's just a pain getting everyone ready when there is a lot of women and then what are we going to do with all the kids? Like Angelia would be welcome but what about Shanna and Ricky?" Stephanie answered.

"They can be your ring bearer and flower girl and when they get to the front they can go sit with Mama and Papa so they aren't standing through the whole ceremony." Leyla said.

"What do you think Carlos?"

"Babe I want you to have a wedding you will love and look back on with happy memories. I can have as many men as you do bridesmaids and there is no shortage of children. If more women are going to make it too hectic then only have a few. But Mama I'm saying now NO Mass. Ceremony only."

"Fine, Carlito no Mass." Mama said with a little pout. I know she would have the ceremony last as long as she can drag it out.

"So let's say four or more attendants. We'll figure it out as we get closer."

"Okay, next question. 8. What is the most important aspect of your wedding? The clothing or dresses, The ceremony, The centerpieces, decorations and flowers, The special details, or The photographer?"

"The ceremony." Stephanie definitively answered. I thought that was a good answer.

"9. What is your must have? Heirloom jewelry, Special shoes, Diamond earrings, Head piece or a Flower crown?"

"We don't have heirloom jewelry in my family. I want special shoes that match my dress. I don't wear a lot of jewelry. I would like a special head piece but I'm not sure if I want a veil in front of my face but no flowers in my hair." Stephanie rattled off.

"We'll answer special shoes for this then."

"10. What kind of dress do you want? Show-stopping back, Ethereal and flowing, Ball-room, or Fairytale, Light weight fabric, or Romantic lace?"

"Oh god, my dress!" I think she was starting to hyperventilate. "If it was just me I would get married in jeans and a t-shirt. Well maybe a nice dress. I already did the puffy-sleeve ball gown. I want something nice, comfortable that I look good in. Satin or silk-ish. I don't know I will have to look at pictures."

"Here are some pictures but honestly I don't think they are very good at representing different styles." She handed over her phone and there were six pictures on it.

"Pick the soft light weight fabric. I don't like any of those and I'm going to be wearing it for hours and last time I could barely move or breathe and it was a pain to sit in. I just want to look nice and be comfortable."

"Eleven is a question about what kind of band you want. But we are going to have a live band that is versatile and can play popular music as well as Cuban music. Twelve is your color palette." Mama continued. "We already know what your colors are." Mama pushed a few buttons on her phone.

"13. It's time for your grand exit: What kind of car do you leave in? A limousine, A glamorous car, A vintage car, A classic black car, A pick-up truck, A motorcycle?"

"We'll probably leave in the Turbo." Stephanie quickly answered.

We waited as Mama finished pressing the last buttons and the program thought about the answers and announced the results.

"You are a ' _Classic Bride_.'" My mama read. " _'Your timeless style has an understated elegance and a sense of tradition, but with a Classic feel. You envision a church wedding surrounded by friends and loved ones to witness you marry your best friend. Your love of clean lines and unassuming details will guide you in your wedding planning choices for a wedding that is beautiful, classy, and meaningful_.'"

"I don't put a lot of stock in those types of quizzes but that actually sounds about right. Marrying my best friend in a church, with friends and family. So, if it tells you how to decorate you can follow that as well."

"Here are the invitations it recommends." Mama handed her phone back to Stephanie. She sat there scrolling for a moment.

"Oh no. Too many choices. I'll tell you what I want. Elegant or Classic script not block letters. Black text on white or light blue. Regular rectangular, not any of these fold out ones. Something easy to stick to a fridge or calendar. I like scroll, or pretty flowers for decoration or border. I like this white and black one here but the plain black square around it sucks. If it was a pretty scroll or flower pattern it would be fine." She showed mama what she was looking at and passed her back the phone.

"Ok we will work on invitation options and get back to you."

"I would like to go through some of the pins and write down your comments and have you tell me what you think. Why don't you pull up the page on your phone and I will make the notes on my computer?"

"Okay" Stephanie dutifully said and got her phone out of the pocket of the seat in front of me and turned it back on. A few minutes later and she was logged in. "Oh my god! There are hundreds of pins!"

"Well of course dear. There are dresses, cakes, decorations, bridesmaid dresses, mother of the bride dresses. There is a lot. All you need to do is go along and tell me what you think of each thing and then we will mark your comments and make notes on things."

Stephanie just started going through them looking at each for several seconds before answering and moving on. "No… no… nope… interesting… no… I don't want an all blue dress… I like these dresses with sparkles but most of them are evening and prom dresses, not wedding dresses… Too puffy… sticks out too far… no… this black and white one is pretty… interesting… no… no… yuck… no… bridesmaid dresses… no… no… nope… no…"

"I think you've gotten ahead of me. You can label them yourself. Just click on the little pencil and put your comments in all caps first before anything else." Mama explained.

"I can do that." The next thing I know she is hunkered over her phone typing away. I thought she hated all this wedding crap but she seemed to really be getting into this.

"These black and striped decorations are a no way. They look like they're going to make someone dizzy or hallucinate." Stephanie said.

"That's fine. A lot of the pins are just to get ideas from. Knowing what you don't want is just as important as knowing what you want." Leyla said.

"Just so you know I don't like the mermaid style dresses. I don't need to be showing off my butt like that." Stephanie commented.

"Definitely tell us what you like so we can be looking for it." Leyla encouraged.

"I really like some of the dresses picked just not for me. I gotta look good enough to stand next to Carlos in a tux and that's a tall order."

"You're beautiful dear, and you're going to look stunning in whatever you pick." Mama said.

After fifteen minutes Stephanie sat up and stretched. "I've stopped labeling them for now. That's tedious. But a couple of things I noticed. I want a regular wedding cake with butter cream frosting and big frosting roses in black and blue all over it. None of this fondant crap with real flowers that have to be picked off. Don't get me wrong they are beautiful. But I want a cake that's meant to be eaten not just looked at."

"Well I guess we can do that. It's not what is in fashion right now. But if it's important to you."

"For me it is the most important food at the reception. I love good wedding cake. If I could only pick one food or one activity for the reception, and everything else had to be done away with, it would be the cutting and eating of the wedding cake." Stephanie explained.

"Well if it's that important we can certainly do it. Once you pick out a bakery we'll do some taste tests of different flavors and you can tell them what you want." Mama said.

"Flavors? I thought wedding cake was white."

"The cake can be any flavor you want and if you get a good bakery; each layer can be a different flavor. The different layers can have different fillings like strawberry or raspberry."

"Or Boston cream." Stephanie licked her lips. "I knew that. It's just been so long since I ordered a wedding cake I forgot."

"What do you think of the balloons?" Leyla asked.

"I generally like all the balloon displays. I like the balloon arches. I like the balloon decorations. I would like helium balloons all over the place. Where ever they make sense." Stephanie said.

"Sure, we just have to see how many we can get and how many we need. We can tie them onto centerpieces and they can float above the tables." Leyla said. "How do you like the flowers?"

"I guess at some point I'm going to have to make a decision on flowers but I just haven't seen a bouquet that speaks to me."

"Now that we have a date we can look to see what flowers are fresh that time of year and pick out some that will work." Mama said.

"I haven't said it but I'm officially adding white to the color scheme. Everything I've seen with blue and black only, looks a little dark. Most of it is dressed up with white or silver or lighter colors of blue. Many of the bouquets are too white needing more black and blue or too dark needing more white. I want black feathers in the flowers. I don't see it here but when I first looked at color palettes there was a bouquet with blue flowers and black feathers and I really liked it. It's where I got the idea for feathers." Stephanie expounded.

"We can look for that. I think Isabella was showing you pictures off Google." Leyla said. Isabella was sitting two rows up in the center aisle. "Isabella come back here. Bring your electronics." She turned around and looked and Leyla held her phone up and lightly waved it around. Isabella got up and came to sit in the empty row behind Mama.

"What are we doing?"

"Discussing the wedding and going over pins. Stephanie said there was a picture on Google when you were first showing her the color palettes of blue flowers with black feathers but she can't find it in the pins."

"Yeah, we didn't have the board up yet. I'll have to look at it. We have so many pins it's time to organize this board. I'm going to start making categories and everyone help put the pins in them. One for decorations, one for the dresses you like, one for the dresses you don't like. Stephanie you are the only one that can put pins in those and since most of the pins are dresses why don't you focus on that." Isabella said.

Stephanie got her phone and was bent over it once more.

"I'm making ones for cakes, balloons, mother of the bride, and the wedding party. That should separate most of them out." Leyla added.

"I really like some of the flower girl dresses." Stephanie said. "They're really cute."

"Yeah the kid's clothes are adorable. The little ring bearer's outfits are cute too. We just haven't decided if the tux should be white or black and blue like the men."

"I don't like a lot of these dresses but some are close I would like them if they were just a little different. Like this one is pretty but it's got a big blue bow on it. I'm telling you right now, no big bows on my ass or chest." Stephanie stated and all the women laughed.

"So if you have a picture that's close that you like click on it and then scroll down and Pinterest will show you more like it." Leyla explained how Pinterest worked. "Then just pin those. That way we can all see what you like and then you can see all the dresses that catch your eye in one place. This is not about decision time this is just about getting some good ideas. Then we whittle them down and you'll find which ones you want to try on. Finally we get to go shopping!"

"And for this we will go to New York City and shop for real! No little dinky store in Trenton where they have twenty of the same old puffy dresses. We'll go to the big stores where you'll have endless choices and can sip champagne while you shop." Mama said.

All the women were glued to their electronic devices and after I watched for a few minutes over Stephanie's shoulder I excused myself to get my computer. She could see a lot more on a big screen. I sat back down with it and logged it in. I quickly found the Pinterest page and was shocked at the hundreds of pins already picked for this wedding.

"Babe, here this might be a bit easier." I dropped her tray table and set the computer there for her to see. She immediately set her phone down and took up manipulating the pictures on the bigger screen.

"I found it!" Isabella declared and held her phone forward for Stephanie to see. Stephanie took the phone from her hand and glanced at it.

"Yes, see how the black feathers stick out and add so much dimension to the bouquet." Stephanie answered.

"I'll pin it and look for more like it." Isabella said.

"I think the pretties flower displays have pearls or feathers or sprigs sticking out of them." Stephanie continued. "Not just straight plain flowers."

All the women were working on their equipment quietly when Stephanie gasped.

"Oh God I'm getting married!" She shrieked and she started to hyperventilate and all the color drained out of her face. I quickly took the computer from her, lifted her tray table and pushed her head down between her knees.

"Breathe Babe." I rubbed the back of her neck in soft soothing circles. After several minutes she was a little calmer.

"It's not you." She turned her head towards me. "I love you. I want you. But the whole process becomes painful. So many choices, so many decisions. The less I'm involved the better."

My mama was looking over at Stephanie worried and Leyla looked unimpressed. They love weddings and all the trimmings and can look at stuff and discuss it for hours. Stephanie however was reminded of her first three-ringed circus that ended in disaster.

"Babe, this wedding isn't going to end like your first one. In fact we don't even have to get married. You can just move into seven and we can live together for a while. I just want you in my life. I want a life with you."

"Okay" She weakly responded.

"Ricardo you can't possibly be thinking about permanently living in sin. Think about your family. Think about her reputation, think about your children." My mama said.

"Mama, when we get back we are moving in together. We will be living in sin and you'll just have to deal with it."

"But that will be different because you are engaged with a date to be married."

"Then we'll stay engaged and set a date for next year. Then next year we'll set a date for a year after that. I want a life with Stephanie however it happens and if weddings freak her out we'll wait to get married."

"Stephanie," my mama, knowing she wouldn't win this battle with me, turned to her. "Whatever your problem with getting married is we'll help you through it. Just talk to us and we'll hold your hand and help you every step of the way."

Stephanie was sitting up now but still looking a little too white. "It's not marriage in general. It's just that my first wedding was crazy. My mom drove me crazy for months and the whole thing just got out of hand. There were so many decisions to make and she knew what she wanted and just kept talking me into everything and I had this big puffy gown with big sleeves that I couldn't sit in or breathe in and the whole wedding happened and it was finally over and I got settled into married life and the next thing I know I find him doing my childhood enemy on top of the new dining room table that I had never even had a chance to have a dinner party at and then the divorce lasted forever and was the meanest nastiest thing I have ever been through and when it was all done I was practically desolate." She finally stopped and heaved a sigh as a tear trickled down her cheek. "I had nothing except my car and my clothes and I had to move back home with my parents who hadn't even finished paying for the wedding. The whole thing was a nightmare that I never want to relive."

"Don't worry dear. Carlos will never cheat on you, because he knows what we do to men who cheat in this family." She gave him a stern look. "But he loves you like no other." She leaned over and put her hand on Stephanie's arm. "You should see the way he looks at you when he thinks no one is looking. He looks at you like you hung the moon and his world revolves around and depends upon you. He would never leave you desolate. He will always take care of you and when you find a love like that you grab it and hang on because it never goes away. He looks at you like Javier looks at me and we have been married 36 years this spring and never looked back. When these Cuban men love they love with all their hearts and it is forever. So put all your fears aside and make room in your heart and in your life for this new relationship. Just take your time, the wedding is four months away. Take it day by day and let him prove himself to you and we will hold your hand every step of the way."

When my mother was done with her speech Stephanie was sitting up and her face had color back to it.

"Thank you," she said to my mama. "I'm better now. I want this, I really do. I can remember walking down the aisle at Kinsey's and Amanda's rehearsal and I want that. I want to walk down the aisle to you. To see you at the end waiting for me." She announced looking at me. "But finding a dress." She looked away from me then turned back and got my computer out again.

"Babe I'm going to leave you my laptop when I go. You can use it as much as you want, but never leave it unlocked or unattended. Even if you're just getting up to get something, lock the computer." I looked at her letting her know this was serious.

"Sure Carlos. Always." She nodded back to me. I logged it in for her, going slowly and whispering the password in her ear. I had printed out all the intel I needed, and transferred most of it to my phone as a backup. She opened the page.

"There are hundreds of dresses in here. I really like some of them, but don't know how good or easy they will be to wear. I can tell you what I want and I'm not finding it. I want a mostly white dress with lots of silver or sparkly things and blue applique's and maybe black appliques. I want it to be white with some blue and black and there just isn't anything like that."

"What about that one?" I asked her.

"It's pretty but it's too poufy. I don't want a big ballroom gown sized dress."

"This one is pretty." I pointed.

"Yeah but it's a little too lacey. Oh I don't know. I would have been happy with a totally white dress, but they put all these pins in here of black and white and blue and white dresses and now the all-white ones kinda look a little plain. Here let me show you." She pulled up the area marked 'Bridal gowns to consider'.

"See this one it is the right style and about the right size with the right train." She showed me a plain white A-style dress. "It's just right except it is totally plain, there is not lace, or color or shiny or anything. It is just a boring plain white dress but it is the right style. So I am looking for a dress like that but with color or appliques or something to make it be special."

"Babe, you will be wearing it. That will make it all the special it needs to be."

I swear she almost looked like she was going to tear up.

"You know I always thought you were sweet and thoughtful when you wanted to be. Opening doors, helping me in and out of the car. Saying that was really sweet and generous. But if we are going to do this I want to be wearing a gown that says WOW! Look at how pretty she is."

"You are already beautiful. You don't need a gown to look that way."

"Carlos, you are… I don't know what you are." She turned to look seriously at me. "Full of it, is part of what you are. Do you know how devastatingly handsome you are in a tux? You are GQ magazine cover, every woman not related to you will be swooning at your feet, handsome. I don't want everyone in that church seeing me and wondering why we are together."

"Babe, do you remember what I told you in the living room of my parent's house? You are so beautiful don't ever let anyone tell you any different. But you are beyond beautiful to me. You mean so much to me that is so much more than what you are on the outside. You make me smile, you make me laugh. You could wear a black garbage bag down the aisle with no make-up on and your hair sticking out in all directions and I would still think you are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. What you mean to me is so much more than outside looks and since I am the man at the end of the aisle waiting for you my opinion should matter more than anyone else's in that room."

"Wow, that's deep. It might also mean you are a little blind because my hair sticking up all over like it does in the morning scared Tank. I don't think we want me walking the aisle looking like that."

"I love your hair, it has as much energy and is as quirky and uncontrollable as you are." He rolled a curl around his finger and pulled on it. After a long day in the heat and humidity it was a little frizzy but he honestly didn't seem to mind. "I never know what you are going to do next and like your hair you have a mind of your own. It is one of the many things I love about you."

"Thanks, and I consider it a really good thing that my hair doesn't frighten you because you have to look at it every morning pre-shower and frizz control gel."

"Babe" I leaned over and kissed her. Slowly, deeply, telling her without words what she means to me.

She goes back to the computer and I close my eyes, planning immediately happening behind my lids. If Sergio is in Venezuela it will mean a separate trip. If we take the Concorde I can move faster from country to country even if the Concorde can't get up to full speed over solid land. I can take it to Colombia and leave it with those teams then charter another plane to Venezuela. If he is tracking the Concorde he would track me to Colombia but not directly to Venezuela.

I still need to decide what I'm going to do with him. There is no question all the cocaine fields and production plants need to be destroyed and with them the coffee plantations and canning facilities. We can burn down the trucking stations, but without destroying the actual trucks and trailers it's not going to slow them down very much. We can blow up the mining equipment and collapse some of the tunnels but we can't actually destroy the mines they would still be valuable to whoever owns them.

The planes are easy to locate and destroy and very expensive to replace. The cargo of the ships could be worth some money but as long as he still has the ships it wouldn't slow him down very much. As long as his companies were functioning the millions would keep flowing in. I kept contemplating the situation as Stephanie focused in front of the computer debating her options and pinning away.

"Babe, if that's the style of dress you want but you want it shiny then do a Google search on it." A few minutes later she was furiously flipping through pictures.

"I didn't know there were so many dresses with silvery beads. Oh look at this one it is beautiful." She just kept going. "I like this one but I want to see it from the back."

"May I?" My mama offered, holding out her hands for the computer.

"First of all I am going to set up the Google Pinterest app, it will let you pin from any website." She spent a few minutes clicking some things. "Now let me show you how to search on a picture. Most of the time you can just right click and see here where it says 'Search Google for image'. Click on that and then when you go to that page click on All Sizes. That will open up all occurrences of that picture it can find. Now you have to go through them one at a time but you will find where it was originally posted on the web and usually there will be other pictures of it. If you're lucky you will find multiple places where the front and back are on the web together."

"Thanks." Stephanie told her and took the computer back.

I was impressed with how well my mother was able to use the computer and navigate all of these sites. I had no idea that she had become so well versed with computers and the internet. She was practically a Pinterest guru. A while later Steph stood up and walked around the plane for a moment then went to use the facilities and came back to sit down pulling out her snicker's and the rest of her coke.

"I've found a really pretty dress that I kinda like, but it doesn't have any kind of train and while that will make it easy at the reception, it doesn't hardly look like a wedding gown without some kinda train."

"No worries dear." My mama told her leaning over the aisle to look at what she was seeing. "All you need to do is add a church or cathedral length veil. Then you can have whatever length you want trailing behind you down the aisle. They have some very pretty ones and many two length ones separate so that the long part comes off and you can wear the short part for the reception. Here let me show you." She reached her hands out for my computer. Taking it she typed in a few things and handed it back.

"See these ones are different lengths and some of them are lacy or have sparkling crystals and you can have whatever length you want following you down the aisle."

"Okay," Stephanie said as she looked at what my mama was showing her. I looked a little too, fully aware that until Stephanie had made her final selection she would let me see the choices she was debating, but once the decision had been made she would guard it as fiercely as a starving pole cat in the winter protecting its dinner. "Babe for future reference no one is allowed to touch or use my computer. Even if it is just to show you something. Make them get their own or have you type it in."

"Sure" She whispered back to me and gave me her mysterious half-smile.

An hour later we were landing in Honolulu and I couldn't believe that my family and Stephanie had spent the entire time working on the wedding. Well, pinning the Wedding or as they called it getting great inspirational ideas. Women love Pinterest and men will never know what to make of it. As we landed it was just after midnight and I took notice that most of the kids under age ten were asleep. Some of them would have to be woken up but I offered some of my men to help carry sleeping kids if the parents wanted.

Richard was carrying Mikie, but I had my men carry Shanna, Ricky, and Parker. Most of my family collected up at least one bag each as they left the plane. I ordered half of my men to carry their bags and guard the family. The rest of my men were to collect the remainder of the luggage and take two trips to get it all to the rooms, leaving the three crates, tents, sleeping bags and unneeded beach stuff behind.

Airport Honolulu Hotel was actually outside the airport and twenty-four hour shuttles came and took the family in two groups to our waiting rooms. There was disorder in the lobby as they had all our room keys for us but we were spread out all over the hotel and I insisted on all our rooms being together. I got a manager to straighten this all out and asked to see the original reservations. As expected Skylar had insisted all our rooms be together in two halls and some clerk who wasn't paid enough money for me to worry about just pulled up the first rooms available and booked everyone all over the hotel.

It only took the manager minutes to correct the problem and except that there were already people booked on the halls we were booked on and we were now spread out on three different hallways it was settled. I got key cards passed out, rooms assigned and told dayshift they were still on duty till all the luggage was delivered and nightshift was available. Before I left the front desk I reverified that the hotel was going to let us use their shuttles to transport everyone to the cruise ship the next day.

"Yes, it is settled, we will have three shuttles waiting for you. That should hold all your sixty people and luggage."

I had Marc and Tiger take Stephanie up to our room to get settled and I walked all the halls and checked all the rooms making sure my family had everything they needed and security for the night was getting set up.

When everyone was settled and the night crew was spread out, three men to each hall for protection, I gave my dayshift their orders for the next day and sent them to bed with the adjustment to sleep in another hour and come on shift at 09:00. I made my way back to our hotel room. I didn't know if Stephanie would even still be awake. It was just after 01:30 and I hadn't asked her to wait for me.

I found her sitting on the bed in the little red lacey number, showered, shampooed and waiting for me. She had my laptop in her hands, pinning away, and I smiled to myself. This Pinterest wedding planning was a world away from how her previous wedding was planned and obviously she was handling it better now.

"Babe." I addressed her and she looked up at me and smiled.

"If I don't try to decide. If I just pin everything that looks good I can look at lots of things and not get overwhelmed. Then when I go back to the pins and look at them it is easier to see what I like and don't like."

"That's great." I told her shedding my clothes and preparing to take my own shower. Ten minutes later, I was crawling into bed, hair still damp, removing the computer from off of her lap.

"Hey!" She yelled as I removed the offending object.

"Bedtime Babe." I said as I closed it and rolled back to her.

"Carlos are you sure that what I pick is OK? I mean how can you afford an elaborate wedding after paying for this trip. It's got to be so expensive." She looked very concerned at me.

"Babe I've got a lot of money. So it is nothing if you spend it all, I'll just make more." I told her and she visibly paled.

"I don't want to spend all your money. Carlos. Not on one day. Not for a wedding, it's not worth it."

"Babe your worth it to me and besides you could fly both our families out here to Hawaii and get married in the most elaborate wedding you can imagine and still not spend all my money."

"So you're rich."

"Well let's just say I'm many more steps past just getting by. I'm a bunch of steps past living comfortably."

"So you're worth millions?"

"Several."

"But I don't want you spending all your money on me." She was trying not to look desolate.

"Babe," I took her in my arms. "When I watched that video and thought those bastards had you… In that moment, in that second I would have given everything I own, even my cars and my shares in the RangeMan Corporation. I would have given everything to save you. To stop them from hurting you. You mean so much more than money to me. You are my sun, my salvation. You make me feel whole in a way I've not felt since leaving the Army. I don't exactly know how to put it into words. Something like, you complete me. Money I can make. But you are priceless to me."

"And your family."

"Babe I love my family but all put together they don't mean a tenth of what you and Julie mean to me."

"So you love me."

"More than my life. You mean everything to me and I have been a stupid stubborn fool to not recognize it sooner. But that video changed everything for me. It made me realize what I would give to keep you safe and what I would do to protect you and I realized that losing you, having you hurt like they hurt that woman was devastating to me. Seriously it makes me want to just take you away and keep you in my arms forever."

"Carlos, seriously that is ridiculous."

"I know that neither one of us would be happy running away from our lives or from danger. But I want to protect you and I will spend every dime I have to protect you and make you happy."

"So how much should I spend on the wedding because I don't do well with open checks."

"Babe spend as much as you want. After this weekend I am going to be an even wealthier man."

"You're going to take his money?"

"I'm going to take his money. A lot of his money. Maybe all of his money. I don't know how much of it I will get to keep. I will have to pay off his business partners with a lot of it but I'm sure I'll have some left."

"So how much money do you think?"

"I want to end up with at least a hundred million. I think that is fair for what he has put me, and you, and my family through."

"A hundred million dollars? What will you do with it all?"

"Invest it. I've hired a lot of men to help me and this whole operation is going to cost me about ten million. Then I will invest some, put some back in RangeMan. Maybe buy out my partners. Give some nice Christmas bonuses. I will set up college funds for all the kids. Put a bunch aside for Julie. Give you as much as you will let me." I smiled at her. "Maybe you will let me buy you a nicer car." I smirked at her look of surprise.

"Maybe I'll let you pitch in a little. I still have my check from Emanuel Caudillink."

"Babe I would buy you three cars. A work SUV, a sports car for you to ride around town in and a back-up for when one of the first two get destroyed."

"Three cars? Isn't that tempting fate? Won't the universe and my bad car karma just take that as a personal challenge to see how fast it can destroy them?"

"Babe, right now I make enough to keep you in cars. With what I take from Sergio I could keep them coming forever."

"So I shouldn't worry about how much I am spending on this wedding?" She asked me again.

"I'll set aside a million dollars for you and you let me know if you need more. But there are conditions for that, you don't just get a million to throw around."

'What are the conditions?"

"First this wedding is about you and me. Condition 1: I want the whole day to be what you want. I want you to say no to anything you don't want no matter how much my mother, or your mother, or my sisters want it. If you only want one bridesmaid only have one bridesmaid. Keep it the size you feel comfortable with. This is all for you. Your special day. Our special day. Think about a day you'll look back on with fond memories for years to come. Condition 2: The whole day should be automated and stress free as possible. Delegate, delegate, delegate. I don't want you to have to worry about anything. Hire an outside wedding planner to be there to make sure everything goes smoothly and you don't have to do anything but show up. Condition 3: Put in for time off for the honeymoon. I'm thinking three to four weeks. I just want to get away and be in the wind and not be worried about anything."

"Three to four weeks? How am I going to make money? How will I be able to pay my bills?"

"Babe what bills are you going to have?"

"Well my apartment and my Macy's card."

"Babe I know you might not be ready to move in together this minute. But I expect when we get married you'll move in and let your apartment go."

"Well of course that's how it's supposed to be…" She started and then she was hyperventilating again. She was sitting up in bed and I was wondering why we were still talking and not having sex. She scooted towards the edge of the bed, dropped her legs over the side and bent forward putting her head between her knees. I moved over beside her and put my hand on her neck rubbing soothing circles, realizing that the aftermath of her divorce scarred her and that is what she is most afraid of.

"Babe, you can keep your apartment as long as you need to feel secure but I want to do something else for you, actually when we get back we are going to do several things. First, we will add you to my bank account. Second, we are going to open a joint bank account for the wedding and put one million dollars in it so you can plan this wedding with out worry. Third, I will transfer as much money to your personal bank account so you'll feel secure. So you don't have to hold on to your apartment because you'll have so much money you can go get an apartment or buy yourself a house at any time. You think about how much money you need to feel secure. Finally, I'll have my lawyer draw up a prenup."

She bolted upright gasping at me and I smiled at her. "It will be a prenup that says you get half my money, half my shares in RangeMan, half of everything and if you catch me cheating you get it all. Everything."

She was staring at me wide eyed mouth agape. "Ranger I can't take everything from you. I couldn't do that to you even if you did cheat on me."

"Babe I don't mind doing it because I know I'll never cheat on you. No matter what it will never happen. So I can write that in with confidence."

She threw her arms around me and crawled into my lap. A minute later I heard her sob and felt tears on my neck and I wondered what I did to upset her. I gently leaned back away from her and put my hand under her chin and lifted her face up to meet mine.

"Babe what's wrong?" Now? I wondered.

"Carlos these are happy tears. I just can't believe that you would do all that for me. You make me feel bad because I'm not really bringing anything of value to this relationship and you're willing to do all this for me and I don't know what to say."

I just leaned down and took her lips and kissed her. Slowly she responded to me till she was finally kissing me back as passionately, tongues dueling, tangling, stroking. Lips moving in sync as only ours do. _Dios_ , I loved kissing this woman and I would always do whatever I could to keep her happy.

When I pulled back I looked down into her happy and confused face and said "Say that you love me and that you'll always stay with me." I told her and she smiled wider.

"Carlos I love you. More than I knew I did, more than I knew I could, I love you."

"That's all I need to hear." I told her and went back to kissing her.

It was already after 02:00 in the morning when I took her into my arms. I decided I would sleep on the flight back to the mainland and kept her up most of the night. I shut off the alarm on my phone knowing early boarding wasn't till eleven. I woke up several times as my body was so accustomed to getting up early, but I just forced myself to go back to sleep. At 07:20 when I woke, I made love to a sleeping Stephanie, until she was fully awake, begging me to take her and then went back to sleep again.

Finally at 09:06 I got up and prepared all our stuff for the day. I picked out a pretty yellow sundress for Steph to wear with white sandals. Unpacked her toiletries and laid them all out. I had been following the hourly check-ins from my men and knew all the families were up and had made an appearance except my _abuelas_ , Oshanna, and Julio. Everyone was being kept in their rooms and were ordering room service.

I opened my laptop and reviewed all the business associates of Sergio. I downloaded the file to my phone and erased it from my laptop. There were five main men who did millions of dollars of business with him but what had me concerned were the three cartels that he was supplying drugs to each year.

I sent a text to my men to knock on any bedroom doors that hadn't shown signs of life at 10:00. For half of them to collect all the luggage and start taking it to the lobby and for Zip and Zero to guard the luggage in the lobby. Then I texted the family to put their luggage outside their rooms by 10:15 and meet in the lobby, ready to go at 10:30.

I ordered room service for us at 9:30 with a carafe of coffee, extra cream and sugar on the side. When it arrived, I made a cup for Stephanie, rolled the whole cart in front of her side of the bed and went about waking her up. As expected she rolled away from me and tried to burrow back into the covers.

"Time to go on the cruise." I told her. "I have coffee and your breakfast right here." I tempted. I took the lid off her breakfast and brought it over to her lap. "I have an omelet with cheese and bacon with more bacon on the side and pancakes, but you only have thirty minutes to get ready to go Babe, so you have to hurry up and eat." At the mention of food, she took the pillow off her head and sat up, Wild Man of Borneo hair sticking up everywhere. I set the plate of food on her lap and returned with the cup of coffee.

I made a mental note not to schedule any morning activities for our honeymoon so I could keep her up as much as I wanted at night and she could sleep in. Ten minutes later her plates were completely clean and she was on her third cup of coffee. A quick stop in the shower and she was dressing without complaint in the pretty dress I had laid out. Then she was back in the bathroom for hair and makeup. For the first time on this trip she hadn't felt the need to coat herself in concealer to cover up the bruises, as they were a very faded yellow now and barely showed even if you knew where to look, under the deep tan she was getting.

Before we left the room, I took her in my arms. "I love you so much. Be safe. Do whatever Marc and Tiger tell you. Stay with the family and have fun. I expect to be back by Wednesday but definitely back by next Saturday at the latest. I will be here before you are leaving the cruise." I told her.

"Happy hunting Ranger." She said back to me on a smile. "I know where you are going and what you are doing."

"I'm going to make it safe for you again and send a message to my enemies that if they mess with me or mine, nothing and nowhere is safe from me."

"Do what you've got to do. I will be here when you are done and Ranger, don't get shot."

"Don't let my family make you crazy and if the wedding planning gets overwhelming, find Julie and go have some fun. There is a lot to do here in Hawaii. Go snorkeling, take a helicopter ride, shop. That credit card is still unlimited and I'm going to tell you a little secret that you can't tell anyone directly."

"What is it?" she asked.

"Everyone has a higher limit on their credit cards now so encourage everyone to do whatever they want, it should all be covered. Don't tell them they have a higher limit, just tell them to keep using their cards and if it is rejected that you will cover it. I want everyone to have a good time while I am gone and not worry about what I am doing."

"Sure I can do that. You know Carlos, I really like your family. Your mom is nice and really helpful and supportive about the whole wedding planning, willing to help with anything. Last time my mom was too pushy and demanding. She had a picture of what she wanted my wedding to be and since she and my dad were paying for most of it I let her push me around. Your mom and your sisters in comparison have lots of ideas, but are giving me a lot of choices. Your sisters seem really nice. They all want my input, they want me to be happy with what they are doing and it's taken the pressure off and made it easier for me to be involved."

"Yes well Oshanna and Angelia are the hardest two women in my family to win over and you did that right away."

"Yes we bonded around the pool talking about shoes and shopping. Rachel has been very accommodating and not the least bit jealous. Spending time with Julie and the girls has been awesome. Yesterday Becky and Maggie started calling me Aunt Stephie. It scares me but makes me feel really accepted. Julio is well, Julio. I think he just likes to aggravate you on purpose. I was so worried about meeting them but they are all so nice to me and fun. It makes me wonder if you weren't adopted." She gave me a bright smile and I couldn't help smiling back.

"Babe I'm just a little harder and closed off. You have to be that way for special forces. To be what I've been and do what I've had to do."

"And I love you all the ways that you are. But this communication thing. Being open and honest about your feelings is great and so new. I keep worrying it's going to stop and you'll go back to hiding behind that blank mask."

"Well I may go back to doing that more when we get back to real life in Trenton. I still have my badass reputation to maintain. I promise to try to keep being open and honest with you and share my real feelings. But it's hard. Babe I've never let anyone in the way I have opened up and let you in. Never in my life have I been this honest about myself and my emotions with anyone."

"I know, it's still shocking to me that you are talking to me so much and so easily."

"It's still not easy for me. But I realized I had to change for this to work. For me to have you I had to become more the kind of man you needed. I'll never be perfect. I have so many faults." I shook my head and then looked back into her clear blue eyes. "But Babe I'm willing to try, to work hard to make this work."

"So far you're doing a good job."

"I want you forever Babe. I may go back sometimes to being that closed up man. To hiding everything. It's my go to, my standard reaction to the world. So when it happens, work with me. Help me to be the man you need, don't give up on me. Just stay with me and we can work through anything."

"Okay, I can promise to do that." I kissed her deeply, for long minutes, melding her body to mine.

"Alright Babe, time to get everyone to the ship." I took her hand and led her to the lobby where most of my family and men were assembled. I surveyed the situation. Oshanna was dragging in behind everyone but surprisingly Julio was there tropical straw hat with dark sunglasses on looking ready to go. Angelia was still missing and I sent Marc to get her and her crew. I walked the three shuttles outside and was pleased to find Zip, Zero and Ram each guarding one, all the luggage already loaded.

I stopped in front of Ram. "Report."

"All the shuttles were checked for explosives and any mechanical failures. All the luggage is loaded and we have been guarding them. Nothing has ever been left unguarded."

"Excellent" I told him. "As always good job men. Let's get this circus on the road." I quickly wrangled my family making assignments of men and family to each shuttle and Angelia showed up before we were all loaded. When we got to the ship we got all unloaded and I sent everyone in groups up the gangplank. This time all the rooms were already assigned and my men and family, carrying most of their luggage, were sent forward onto the ship, no scanning needed. My men investigated the hallway and each room as everyone showed up with their keys and started getting everyone settled to each room.

I left Stephanie with a kiss, my mama, the _abuelas_ and Julie with hugs and kisses, and my father with a clap on his back. With a wave and good luck my sisters sent me off. Me dragging my suitcase and carrying my two special Sergio bags, I climbed onto the one shuttle that had stayed to take me to the airport.

I stared out the window and watched as we passed every mile marker, each representing another step away from my family and away from the open book I had been to Stephanie these past few days. As we went I left Carlos behind and morphed fully into Ranger. The ruthless unforgiving killer that was going to take down this threat to Stephanie, Julie and my family.

To be continued….

A/N: Thank you all for your reviews! So a little more wedding planning with the family. I only wanted to add a little bit and it turned into a whole chapter and by the end Stephanie said she didn't mind it so much. The wedding quiz was taken from two different sites but the "answer" was quoted directly from the quiz and it was so on the money I just had to use it in the story. In the process of writing the chapter I did create a Pinterest page for it. Check it out at www dot /rangerbabe21/black-and-blue-wedding/ You can even vote for your favorite dress. Please read and review.

I've had some really productive writing so for a couple of weeks there will be two chapters a week, and that's good cause were getting into some Ranger action. Hope you enjoy it.

As always big THANK YOU to my beta Sassysaint for all you do!

Second Big THANK YOU to my sister, Jonelle. Thank you for fixing all my many little mistakes.


	26. Chapter 26 Party Time Ranger Style

Chapter 26 Party Time Ranger Style

A/N: So the party is starting….I got pictures for the mercenaries that go on the trip with Ranger and made a Pinterest page where I posted all of them. It adds a lot to the story to see the guys being talked about as you read. Check them out at www dot /rangerbabe21/mercenaries/

 _As I stalked off the ship, with every step I took closer to the airport, I left Carlos behind and morphed fully into Ranger. The ruthless unforgiving killer that was going to take down this threat to Stephanie, Julie and my family._

Saturday May 22 11:00

Once we were in the air I got out my Sergio go bag. From it I pulled out an 8 inch double sided hunting knife with a wooden handle and my battery powered jewelry engraver. Very carefully I carved, THREATEN WHATS MINE, on one side and I TAKE EVERYTHING OF YOURS on the other. Then I carefully slipped it back into its sheath and back into my bag.

The pilots had pushed it and the winds were behind us so we arrived in good time. It was just before 14:00 when we landed in Upton, California and I put the pilots on standby; to disappear for an hour and return to leave at 15:00 They knew we needed full tanks and we were headed to Panama, Venezuela and Colombia. I didn't know in what order but we were expecting to be gone until at least Monday. I was paying them an extra $50,000 each for the weekend on top of the regular $75,000 per trip.

Normally the $75,000 gets paid to the company and then they pay for the hangers, gas, pilots and stewardesses. But I asked them to file one flight plan to Colombia and back telling them that I would pay the company for both of these trips. The side trips to Panama and Venezuela were off the books so I would pay them the money directly on top of the $50,000 hush money I was paying them and they could do with it what they wanted. Money means nothing to me if I lose the people I love. They are priceless and irreplaceable. I am willing to spend the millions I have earned and saved to protect Stephanie, Julie and all the women in my family. Once the plane was parked in front of warehouse 38, the pilots got the plane scheduled to be gassed up and left.

Tank texted that they were waiting for us to arrive and once I called, five SUVs drove out to the warehouse. I stood outside the plane by the fence as they piled out of the cars like an endless clown troop. They just kept coming till I counted fourteen men plus Tank and Hector.

I knew all of them. I trusted most of them. Rascal was a little guy that could get in and out of anywhere unseen. Eagle has a tattoo of eagle wings on his chest and is one of the best snipers in the business. Bomber was a fighter pilot that can fly anything. Jack-knife can drive and crash anything. Grenade loves to blow shit up and got his name for his creative uses of grenades on several missions. Frizz is a big black man with hair that is combed straight up and dyed blond on the tips.

Basher is just a big guy who's a great shot but prefers to fight up close and personal. Dago is a pretty white boy that likes to make a big mess, he can also fly some planes. Starr has several star tattoos on his body. He is a big guy that likes to be the star in the middle of the action and leading the brigade. Lover Boy has a heart tattoo with mom written in it that he is forever being teased about, but he earned the nickname by using his good looks to seduce as many women as he could.

Hairy is ironically a bald older mercenary who can fly or shoot anything. Mr. T's origin is a mystery. He doesn't look black and doesn't look Latino but his skin is too dark for him to be just white. He wears a mohawk and is as big as Mr. T from the old tv show The A-Team. When asked; he tells you that a wood nymph fell in love with a gorilla and he is their bastard love child. Bullet was also a sniper but he's not just a great shot, he can hit anything from any angle. A great man to have on your side in a firefight.

Ice is a surprise. He is a ruthless killer and is not known for working with a group. His light blue eyes can stare ice daggers of fear into anyone, but he is really named because his heart is ice cold. There is nothing off the table, nothing that he won't do for the right price. The big surprise was Hector, code name Beaver. Small and behind the scenes he is probably the deadliest man here. If he wants you dead there is no saving you and he will take his knives and drag it out till you are begging for it. But the reason he is here now is because he can do anything with a computer that can be done.

With these sixteen men and me I really didn't need more men, but some of the guys I hired were specialists whose skills I felt I wanted. I guess I should have been more specific with Tank about who he was bringing. I had been guessing four or six men. I should have known better.

I greeted each man with a complicated handshake and welcomed them onto the plane. Each man carrying his own "go bag" of goodies. Grenade carrying two and Hector carrying three. When I loaded up they sat, all spread out throughout the front half of the plane. Many of these men were ex-special forces and many of them I had worked with, but these were mostly men with good morals who would take out the bad guy and his cocaine fields because it was the right thing to do. I addressed the troops.

"I don't know why you think you are here, but we are hosting a week-long party for Hollywood bigwigs in Palmsdale. I have contracts for everyone to sign stating that is what we are doing. Pay is half a mil, to be paid two weeks from today. I only brought a limited number of contracts and we are expecting eight more guys so there will be several of you signing per contract.

" _El jefe del perdón tengo una impresora."_ Hector told me. _(Pardon boss I have a printer.)_

" _¿Puede copiar?"_ I asked. _(Can it copy?)_

" _Si"_ Hector answered.

" _Hacer diez." (Make ten.)_ I opened my file, handed him a copy, and he disappeared to the back of the plane.

I kept the file open and passed out the thirteen contracts I had left. "With this signature I need pictures of each of you in a suit. Email them to me in the next week." Several of the guys pulled out their phones and sent me pictures right then. "Now we are waiting on the party planner and the rest of the men. Are there any specific party favors you want for this party?"

"What exactly are we doing?" Bomber asked.

"Unofficially flying all over South America and taking down a man named Sergio Valentino."

"What did he do?" Star asked.

I gave Tank a raised eyebrow that asked 'why were they here if they don't know what we are doing and why'. He gave me a half shoulder shrug and a look that said 'they wanted to come blow shit up. What did you want?'

"We'll go into those details when everyone else arrives. You arrived early."

"Some of us have been hanging around this airport since yesterday." Frizz said.

"Meetup was today at 15:00 and it's only 14:20 now. I already put an order for equipment in but if you were going to be blowing up a bunch of buildings and burning down a lot of coffee fields what kind of equipment besides hellfires and hot blowers do you want to have?"

"Flame throwers" Jack-knife said.

"C4 and detonators. I like to build my own." Grenade answered.

"Lots of dynamite." Starr replied.

"RPG - Grenade launchers" Frizz revealed.

"Be old fashioned, just go for TNT." Bomber explained.

"Don't be ridiculous just get some HMX." Eagle stated.

"Rocket launchers" Basher declared.

"Drip torches." Lover Boy desired.

"Ping pong ball launchers." Came from Rascal.

"GroundRX hellfires are to burn down the fields. They are twenty-foot strings of thermite. I plan on buying timers to light them so they can be set to burn in the middle of the night when no one is in the fields. This way we can burn down twenty-five fields at the same time. The buildings are going to be more difficult. Expect guards and possible nightshift workers. Hot blowers have to be set right up next to the building but you can time them to start at one end, then 10 minutes later the middle of the building, then the front of the building so the people inside have a chance to get out. They will burn long enough and hot enough to burn each warehouse and everything in them to the ground."

"I was told we were going to blow shit up spectacularly. This sounds boring." Basher said.

"I was planning on blowing up the buildings and killing the guards but if there are workers inside we need to have some options. There is plenty of killing to be done but I would like to keep the deaths of the innocent workers to a minimum." I told them. "After the fields and the warehouses come the five main compounds, seventeen smaller compounds and family houses.

At that moment my watch beeped and I excused myself to go out to the runway and greet the party planner. Gunnit is an ex-Mexican, ex-everything military guy who now supplies ex-military employees with ex-government hardware. He was a marine, who became a navy SEAL, but after an argument with a supervisor transferred and became a Green Beret, then that wasn't exciting enough so he moved to Delta Force. Most recently after surviving a deadly IED attack that took out his team, he was retired and got into the supply business. He drove in a black SUV right up to the plane, with two semi-trucks behind him. He got out, wearing a bespoke Armani suit, white striped shirt open at the collar with a large side arm on his hip as did three more men carrying assault rifles who were obviously there to protect Gunnit and his hardware.

"How did you get on the tarmac?" Called Tank as he followed closely behind me.

Gunnit took off his jacket, leaving it in the driver's seat. He approached us carrying a clipboard, with several pens, a highlighter and two black markers in his top shirt pocket. He walked around to the back of the second semi, lowered a hydraulic rear lift and opened the back of the trailer. Inside was a small forklift. "I told them we had to load the plane with this and gave the guard some personal cooperation compensation as we call it in this industry. To let us through and not check our cargo too closely."

"What have you got for me?" I asked.

"All kinds of treats for your party. First a crate of seventy-two GroundXR hellfires. That's three for most of your fields and will take care of your problem nicely." Gunnit said as he ushered me and Tank onto the lift and raised it up level to the rear opening. He ushered us past the forklift as he hit a switch to turn on some interior lights. He walked us past two large wooden crates and popped open a large black metal crate. Inside were round dirty-silver coils about five-inches tall and a hand width across the top, stacked three deep. I quickly counted twenty-four and calculated out seventy-two total. I nodded to him.

"I'll take the crate. Timers?" I asked.

"I have some over here." He said as he marked it on his sheet, took a black marker and marked the crate then led us to the back past several stacks of things. "They come in boxes of twenty so you can have sixty or eighty of them."

"Will they also light the hot blowers?"

"They are not made for them but yeah you can wire them up if you want." Gunnit said.

"I'll take eighty to start. Let's see what else we can use them for."

"Here are two cases of hot burners as you requested but these are not the best things to take down a building."

"There are some buildings that very likely will have workers in them. I want to give enough notice for the innocent people to get out, which prohibits just blowing up the buildings. But I need the fires hot enough and long enough to burn all the processing equipment inside those buildings."

"Then I recommend fire bombs. Smaller than a rocket launcher, or RPG, larger than grenades specifically designed to start fires in buildings and vehicles and can be launched from twenty to thirty yards away. They are the size of a Monster drink will penetrate a 12 inch concrete wall and burn hot for about an hour."

"I've heard of them. I've actually seen them in use several years ago. I just didn't know they were so widely used they could be gotten hold of outside the military."

"At this point, for the right money, I can get anything the military is using. I can get a used F-16 if you have enough money. Your problem is finding an airport that will host it and getting the special fuel it needs to fly properly. Maintenance is a bitch and getting parts impossible."

"How can you do that? I thought they were highly regulated." Ranger questioned.

"Under the wire I legally opened my own storage and processing military base approved and certified by Congress and I have eight army personnel working there that the army operates and I pay under the table. If I have the money and can show a military requisite order I can get anything. I'm just not approved to sell anything overseas. Which is a shame because there are several countries that would make me rich like a Rockstar to provide military hardware for them."

"I have twenty-nine warehouses, five compounds and seventeen other houses to take out."

"And your trying to avoid all casualties." Gunnit clarified.

"Maybe not _all_ casualties." I told him.

"We'll get to that in a minute. Let's go to the other truck." He said.

He led Tank and me back to the lift and lowered us to the ground. In the other truck were most of the fourteen guys from the plane. Another guy with a clipboard watched as several of them were walking away with equipment. Dago had a flame thrower. Basher and Starr each had a rocket launcher and Frizz, Lover Boy and Jack-knife were carrying rockets.

"Guys. I'm buying the equipment for this trip. For now put it all back. I will get to it." I told them. Shoulders slumped and several of them turned around and headed back to the trailer, but Basher just kept walking.

"Basher, you will get what you need to blow shit up. Let me do it one order at a time. I will let you have a rocket launcher but I have to start from the top and work my way down the list of things to buy."

"Fine" he huffed and headed back to the truck.

For the first time I noticed that the logo 'Green Jeans Super Foods' with a bunch of fruit and vegetables was painted on the sides of each truck and trailer.

"Bet your greens all come with a bang." I told him.

"Actually, a good bit of my business is food for several bases. I set up my own contracts with local growers and farmers, getting prices cheaper than the military negotiated and I store what's not immediately needed or sell it off to other grocery chains. It's a large part of my business and how I got my standing as a military storage and processing facility."

"Damn, sweet contract and you do this on the side." Tank interjected.

"Actually, now I do. I have a lot of nationwide private stores that can carry some military stuff that I have built a steady business on. I process food and ordinance going to three local bases and several bases overseas that are half my bread and butter. Over two-thirds of my business is legitimate these days." We climbed into the back of the first trailer and he walked up to some big silver crates. "I have ten of these." He said as he popped the first one open. "You have to wear gloves to fire and handle them. The tubes get really hot and many men have been burned on their arms and chest by holding the tube against them. They are as easy to use as grenade launchers just slide in the ordinance aim and fire. You get sixty to ninety feet. Of course a higher trajectory will aid in them going further, but if you are punching through a solid wall thicker than 6 or 8 inches you want to aim directly at it." I picked up one of the 'bullets' and looked at it. It was coned at the end, slightly bigger around than a can of soda and about ten inches long.

"They fire like a bullet, the back third of it launches it out of the tube, but unlike a rocket it doesn't keep propelling it. That's how they are more like grenade launchers. Once fired that's all the umpft you get. When they land they don't explode, they create a large twelve foot fire that will burn everything including concrete and steel for at least an hour. This way you don't have to get too close to guarded buildings and you can set one end on fire driving everyone out the front of the building."

I was expecting twenty-four guys at this point. This meant fewer locations per team but more ordinance would be needed.

"I'll take all ten. I only see six bullets."

"Every case has six, giving you a total of sixty. You mentioned fifty-one targets. A couple of these will work for a warehouse, manufacturing plant or regular house. But you keep mentioning compounds. How big are we talking and is there a high fence around them?"

I stood there debating how much I could trust him. Hell, I already had twenty-four men who were going to know the game plan. I walked up to Tank whispering: "Photo evidence." He immediately pulled out his phone and started playing on it but I knew he was really taking pictures of Gunnit with everything in these trucks.

"Gunnit I know you can keep my confidence. I have pictures of all the compounds in the plane." I turned away walking to the back of the trailer and hopped out.

"Killer plane," Gunnit said as he followed me. "I didn't know there were any more of these around."

"Leasing it from a company in France. There are only a few left. They refurbished them all and started leasing them out."

We walked up the steep stairs. If this was my plane I would have some couches and tables installed. I got the folder that I had wedged in between the front two seats and sat down motioning for him to do the same. I opened the thick folder and started pulling out pictures.

"His southern compound is the largest on over 25 acres. The house is over 20,000 square feet and set up like a small hotel with the main family in one wing but eighteen smaller king size bedrooms in two other wings. Then it has a ballroom, library, a set of offices, and bathrooms all over. It's huge and the largest structure we are up against. The main house is surrounded by a ten foot concrete wall. The next two compounds are only about 10,000 square feet and the forth compound is even smaller, it is only about 7,000 square feet again surrounded by a wall. The final compound is small, only 5,000 square feet, but it is on a large piece of land that is very wooded. There are a lot of smaller buildings on this compound. Because of the woods and a natural river that runs behind the property there is only a wall in the front and sides of the property. All of the properties have a full contingent of guards. He is not mafia but he works with several cartels and he protects his people and properties like a cartel. Minimum 10 guys with guns on the properties inside and out at all times." I flipped through the pages.

"The warehouses and production plants are all rather small by comparison. Most of them are between 3,000 and 5,000 square feet. Again two or four guards stationed outside the properties, if there are workers more guards are inside the properties. All of the smaller residences are mostly rural. None are on anything bigger than three acres, most on less than one, but nothing nearby to burn with the structures. These are not in close neighborhoods like that. I want no one in the houses left alive. I want them to go up all at once, instant death." I explained.

"Ok so the fire bombs are good for the warehouses, I have five RPGs and three rocket launchers for the houses. But I have a proposal for the compounds. Do you need the people out alive?"

"Not on those properties."

"I have some drones sitting down in South Cali. With the direct coordinates we could do a few strikes say some time tomorrow."

"You have drones?"

"Yes and you are not buying the drones themselves. But we have been flying a few random missions off the books for the Mexican government against the cartels as backup and support. So I sell strikes. Charge for each missile launched and for the distance traveled and you have to leave a retainer for the cost of each drone. They can get shot down and if that is the case you are on the hook for the whole thing."

"What does that cost?"

"For Colombia, $25,000 for the flight and $5,000 for each missile."

"That's a lot higher than a few RPGs which is what I saw in your trucks and would do the job nicely from a distance."

"But you have to have men on the ground against guards that are going to shoot at them and try to chase them down. Plus, you would need a lot of RPG's against compounds this large. More RPG's than I have. They would leave a lot of the structure standing and left burning for a fire department to put out. You can't guarantee the annihilation of all the people inside with just a few RPG's. The drones are problem free. You give me a time and location and I can take out all five compounds from the air. Most importantly, no matter what happens it can never be traced back to you."

"I'm going to have to think on that one because I'll still want boots on the ground confirmation of each strike."

"I think you don't trust me." He said, hand on his chest acting like he was shocked.

"Gunnit this maniac threatened to do horrible torture and death to my mother, my daughter and other members of my family. This is a him or me proposition and I have to have complete confirmation that the threat has been eliminated."

"Understood, what is your timeline?"

"Teams were going in tonight to eliminate the land and warehouses. Tomorrow night was going to be the compounds and houses."

"So start with the compounds, say 22:00 tomorrow night, Colombian time. Have men there watching. Once you have confirmation you can hit the smaller houses throughout the night."

I sat thinking about the possibilities. This would show amazing firepower and range to anyone that would threaten me and there would be no direct links to me. The police would be stumped. Of course all the properties combined would point to a personal attack on Sergio and his businesses but maybe I can leave clues to point to one of the cartels he doesn't do business with. Or one of the ones he does business with that maybe he screwed over in a deal.

"Fine, two missiles each for the four compounds. Start at 21:00. The fifth compound I have to visit personally anyway.":

"Eight missiles means two drones, they only carry six apiece."

"I want total destruction and no one left alive."

"Two drones, eight missiles. Just for you Ranger I will drop those extra missiles anywhere you want no extra charge."

"I'll take you up on that offer, even though I know you just want to drop the payload so you'll use less gas and have a faster flight back."

He just smiled at me and I pulled out the sheets that had the coordinates on them and wrote them down.

"This one is in Panama, this one is in South Colombia. I want them hit first and drop one extra on Panama and two extra on South Colombia. This one is West Colombia drop the other extra there. If you drop the first loads at 21:00 when will you get to the second targets?"

Gunnit sat there calculating on his phone for several minutes.

"Between 00:00 and 01:00."

"I'll have teams there."

We went back outside to the trucks.

"I want all the fire bombs you have with ammo for the warehouses. The case of 72 GroundXR HellFires for the fields, all three rocket launchers with the rockets that you have and the five RPGs with all the ammo you have for the houses."

Gunnit was following me with his clipboard, pen out marking things as I spoke and marking crates as we passed them by.

We got to the table in the back where there was a bunch of guns.

"I want an unregistered gun per man." I explained as I picked out the best of what he offered with ammo.

He read the list back to me and ended with the four drone hits for the compounds.

"Your total is $364,883.00." He read off his calculator.

I transferred the money into his account and I waved at my men to start loading it up.

Half of them looking serious and half of them smiling like idiots. Basher carried two rocket launchers and kissed one of them as I stood supervising the loading of all the ordinance. Didn't want anything exploding before we got there. We all knew how to jump from an exploding plane but I was sure there were not enough packs and they would kill each other to get the few that were there. I pulled my thoughts back to the present.

"Here is your 'receipt'." Gunnit offered me a piece of paper that listed pounds of carrots, onions, broccoli and asparagus, with the totals for the ammo.

"I need your phone." He told me holding out his hand. "I'm going to download a program onto it so you can watch the same screen the remote pilots of the drones watch while they are in flight. These are fully manned missions. The drones are watched the whole time they are in flight and you can watch one of them." I handed him my phone.

"Which one do you want to watch?" He questioned.

"The South Colombia compound." I told him and he started downloading the program on my phone.

"Tank" I called. He put down the crate he was carrying and walked over.

"I need your phone." With out questioning me he pulled out his phone and handed it to me.

"Gunnit is going to set up your phone to watch one of the drones. You can only watch one drone per phone. I'd like you to watch Panama." I explained as I took it.

Gunnit handed me my phone back and took Tank's. A few minutes later he was done.

"Thanks Gunnit for driving down to meet me and bringing all the hardware. I promise to put it to good use." I gave him a complicated handshake and he and his men loaded up and were gone.

By the time everything was loaded my next group of mercenaries had arrived and boarded. Snark was an old tattooed information man. He was always in touch with the underground and could get information about anyone, but more importantly he could get any information _out_ of _anyone_. He was going to be useful. Hangman was a killer. He had a noose tattooed around his own neck because he knew his line of work would be the death of him, but he could kill anyone, anywhere, in anyway, for any reason. Really he had the least morals out of everyone here but Ice.

Wolf was full blooded American Indian and a hunter by nature, a medic by training. _Tres Amigos_ were _Afable, Muerte_ and _Negro,_ a three person team that was a force to be reckoned with on their own. Afable meant suave and was the smooth partner that could fit into any social situation and seduce any woman. Muerte meant death and was the killer and leader of the group. Negro meant black, he was very Hispanic with a large mustache but his soul was dark, he was a great torturer and nothing was off the table for him. Skeleton was deadly but he was also a pilot. Irish was big and built, spoke with a smooth lilt but again could pilot anything. Considering the eight I had recruited, they were more ruthless and had less morals than the fourteen Tank had brought.

Once everyone was loaded I texted the pilots that we were ready to leave. They showed up twenty minutes later and began the process for takeoff. I gave them the name and coordinates for the small airfield in South Colombia where Sergio kept his planes.

Then I turned back to the men I had assembled and debated on what kind of groups I could put them in and which partners to assign to whom. I was reformulating my plan. Finally I addressed the group.

"Here are the forms I need signed by everyone, stating we are doing a week long protection gig in Palmsdale and pay is half a mil." I walked around collecting up the forms that were already signed and passing out the blank forms Hector had left stashed on my seat. Once they were all signed and retrieved I continued.

"I need pictures of everyone in a nice suit emailed or texted to me. Now let's get down to business. We are starting tonight with a video." I waved the DVD to Hector and he retrieved it and disappeared into the back of the plane. A few minutes later he came back and said. " _Cinco_ "

"Everyone turn your monitors to channel five." I ordered and they sluggishly complied. Hector came back with a handful of earbuds, held them up and began passing them to out stretched hands.

I sat down as I let the DVD start to play. Twenty minutes later the captain interrupted to say that they had been granted a spot in the line up to take off and we would be leaving momentarily. For everyone to have their seatbelts on and stay seated till we were at cruising altitude and the seatbelt sign was turned off. But at that point the video was in the middle of the raping session and no one was paying any attention.

By the time the video finished I was standing again and I nodded to Hector to go shut it down. "A Colombian coffee, cocaine and shipping magnate decided that I pissed him off with something I did for the government years ago when I was a commander in the Rangers. He has ordered several hits on me through the years but none were successful. Now he decided to get more playful and target my women before coming after me."

"The men he hired dropped this video off after shooting up my front door, signaling the start of his game. We did get that woman safely off the side of the building, but all the women in my family are in danger until he is dead and after getting all the answers I need out of him I would like to pay him back in kind. I have an actual whip and am looking for volunteers to make a playground out of his ass."

"He is currently at his compound in Venezuela. Before we go see him, tonight we are going to burn down all his coffee/cocaine fields and blow up all of his warehouses. Tomorrow night I go visit him while you will be blowing up his houses."

"Why tomorrow night? Why aren't we going after him first then burning everything down?" Rascal asked.

"I want him to see me coming and be afraid of what I'm going to do to him."

"Dude he threatened your women, he knows you are going to be after him." Jack-knife said.

"The smart thing to do would be to hit him first. Take him down before he knows you're in the country after him." Dago inputted.

"I want him to see me burn down his businesses and kill his family before I torture and kill him." I explained.

"That will just give him time to put more hits out on you and your family so even after you kill him they will keep coming after you and with his kind of money it could last forever." Hangman explained. I had to think about this good point for a minute. In my imagination he hears about all the destruction and is hurt and afraid, knowing I am destroying all he has worked to build. Killing all of his family while he is out of town and helpless, with his mistress, just seemed appropriate. But he might use it as incentive to use all his money to send endless numbers of killers after us. Instantly I knew what I had to do.

"He is currently at his heavily guarded compound in Venezuela. There is no good way in, you can only attack from the front. It would mean massive firepower, taking down about twenty guards and forcing our way in." Even as I said it I didn't know why I was asking. These men had all done things like this before. As I looked around the plane all I saw was eager acceptance.

"I'll go give the pilots the new coordinates." I told them, grabbed my folder and walked up to the cockpit. Using the phone right outside the cockpit I told the pilots, that we needed to change direction and go to El Pinal, Venezuela and the coordinates for the new airport.

Ten minutes later in the middle of our planning the pilot called me back to the cockpit.

"De airport has no towver and ve cannot determin the length of de runvay. Records sho' it iz only a mile long an' isn't long enovgh to land on an' take off again. De next neares' airport iz not far avay but it will hav security issues for all your men."

"What other private airports are in the area with runways long enough that you can land?"

"There is another private strip south of San Cristobal about an hour away." The co-pilot told me.

"Do it." I encouraged. I walked back out to my men. I realized that though I had hired these guys I didn't trust them as much or think of them as my men like I do the men from RangeMan.

I pulled out the map, the aerial photographs, and the frontal photographs I had of the property and gate and passed them around.

"We will be landing at a private strip over an hour away from the property. We have twenty five men and a lot of equipment. I need at least six men to go get large SUVs or vans or whatever kind of large vehicles you can find." Jack-knife, Frizz, Grenade, Dago, Lover Boy, Rascal and Negro all volunteered. I knew at least one of the three _amigos_ would go, they are thick as thieves, always stick together and always watch out for each other.

I had a printed out aerial map of the area that showed other local structures and a lot of woods. The wall ran around to the back of the property but stopped at the river that ran behind the house. A plan was hatched and we all anxiously awaited our arrival.

I went back into the kitchen and got myself a water. Realizing we had over three more hours of this flight to go and we left at dinner time I was guessing that probably half the men hadn't eaten dinner.

"Lover Boy, Rascal, Dago, Afable" I called to the four of them. When I had their attention, I gave them orders. "The kitchen is fully stocked. Investigate what foods and drinks there are for meals and snacks. Load them on the food cart and pass them out to everyone."

Rascal and Dago may not have wanted to serve anyone but they were glad to be the first in the kitchen. Lover Boy was less enthusiastic and I knew that Afable was most likely going to only serve him and his pals but I didn't want to leave the trio out. Sure enough Afable was out two minutes later with drinks for the other two and just as quickly disappeared back inside the kitchen. Minutes later he was back out with wrapped sub sandwiches, took his seat, passed out subs to the other two and all began eating.

Ten more minutes went by as I stood discussing a plan to take the front of the compound with Eagle, Basher, Tank, Starr, Bullet, Bomber and Jack-knife. Starr and Tank were for stealth. Eagle and Bullet first wanted to take out any men outside the gate and, if they could get high enough, men on the other side of the wall while we climbed the wall in several locations and silently worked our way through the building. Basher and Bomber wanted to blow the gate up and go in guns blazing. Jack-knife of course wanted to ram the gate with a vehicle loaded with men and weapons and drive up to the front of the house taking out any guards along the way. Unload at the front door and then we wouldn't be picked off filing in, one at a time, through the front gate.

My plan had been to work my way through the woods and come over the wall where there was cover. Stealthily make my way to his back bedroom, use the grappling gun to reach a third-floor window and go in the bedroom next to his. Make my way to his bedroom and if empty wait for him there. But that plan wasn't feasible with twenty four other guys.

After another moment to process everyone's ideas I began, pointing at the map. "We know he is expecting me, but not this much fire power. I would like to be in his bedroom before he can hide behind a wall of armed men. So the first group will work their way through the woods, come over the wall in the back here where there are buildings to hide behind and take out any guards patrolling in the back. While we get in position Eagle takes out any guards in the front. Once we go over the wall and clear the rear buildings Basher takes out the gate, Jack-knife drives in with the biggest vehicle we have, loaded with shooters who take out the front guards and prepares for anyone exiting the house. Everyone else comes through the gate or over the wall. Then we simultaneously storm the house. The last, probably hardest, part will be getting into his bedroom without getting shot. Surely there will be at least one guard in there and Sergio will be armed."

That last comment brought a round of discussions and I went over to the three amigos and spoke with them in Spanish.

" _Sergio tiene una niña muy pequeña que compró y que ha estado secuestrando en esta propiedad. Si podemos sacarla y traerla de regreso, ¿puedes encontrar un lugar para ella? Le han quitado todas sus opciones y básicamente es una esclava sexual. Me gustaría verla tener la oportunidad de una vida y una educación."_ I told Muerte. _(Sergio has a very young girl that he bought and has been holding hostage on this property. If we can get her out and bring her back can you find a place for her? She's had all her choices taken from her and is basically a sex slave. I'd like to see her have a chance at a life and an education.)_

" _Si puedo encontrar una familia para ella, donde pueda volver a ser una niña."_ He nodded at me and I nodded back. ( _Yes I can find a family for her, where she can be a kid again.)_

Finally, Lover Boy emerged from the kitchen. "Who wants a Coke?" He asked, one arm holding at least eight of them. Hands went up. Men replied in the affirmative and he started chucking them through the air. When he was empty he asked. "Who else wants a Coke?"

There were several more "Yeses" and he disappeared back into the kitchen returning moments later with another arm full. Then he repeated the throwing and all but one was snatched out of the air. Minutes later he was back with bottles of water, again repeating the asking and the throwing. I got another one from him.

"Who still needs something to drink?" He asked and several hands went up.

"There's Sprite, apple juice, orange juice, lemonade, root beer and Dr. Pepper. What do you want?" More cries went up around the cabin and he returned several times with more drinks and once again with more waters. Finally, he asked "Anyone else?" and when there was no answer he got a drink for himself and retook his seat. Before I could ask what else was happening in the kitchen Rascal and Dago pushed the cart, piled high with food, up the aisle.

"There are four different types of sandwiches. Turkey, ham, roast beef and club. What do you want?" Dago asked.

Again the men started yelling out and he began chucking sandwiches around the airplane. When Basher reached out and took a sandwich meant for Bomber behind him it almost came to blows for a minute before Rascal chucked another one his way. I got a turkey and made my way back to my seat. Tank got a club and came to sit beside me. Even on this mission, unspoken, he still knew he was my number two. Once everyone had a sandwich they parked the cart upfront.

"There are three types of chips and all different kinds of snack foods, crackers, candy bars and more. Ranger there is even fruit. They're all on this cart, come up and help yourselves." Dago said. He and Rascal took their own food and made their way back to their seats against the small tide of guys headed to the front. I laughed at their display, reminding myself that these were mercenaries not flight attendants. As long as everyone got food I was happy, realizing it was probably going to be me and Tank going back down the aisle with plastic bags to collect the garbage otherwise the plane would be a pig sty by the time we got back.

Three hours later, the plans had been made. Watches synced. Of course when you have a bunch of military men with military watches it is more a matter of getting them all in the same time zone.

Fortunately this was an unmanned airport that had twenty-four hour lights on the runways. The pilots circled four times before landing getting lower and lower and making sure it was long enough to land, turn around and take off again. Landing was smooth if not a bit abrupt and I told the pilots to stay with the plane, that we would be gone most of the night but should be back by morning.

Saturday May 22 20:30

Jack-knife, Frizz, Grenade, Dago, Lover Boy, Rascal and Negro returned within thirty minutes with vehicles as the nearest neighborhoods to steal them from were a few miles away. By now it was nearing 21:15 and we were all "dressed" in bulletproof vests, LSATs with two full magazines each, night vision goggles, radios, and various knifes and smaller guns. Except for Basher who was proudly holding a loaded RPG. Several of us had go bags slung crosswise over our bodies and I knew that Hector was staying out of the initial action because he was bringing in sensitive equipment along with his computer. At 22:10 we drove past the compound on our first pass and saw no guards outside the gate. I took half of the men through the woods and over the backwall. Half of us had climbed the wall when Wolf found an unlocked side gate and everybody else went through it.

We started clearing the out buildings that turned out to be small shacks for the guards. By the third shack we had men coming out of the house toward us and the guards in the shacks were awake and armed so I called the front team to go. Seconds later there was a loud explosion and a large fireball that you could see light up the front yard, followed closely by gunfire.

The men worked methodically through the backyard killing everyone coming out of the last two shacks and out of the house before they had taken three steps. As quickly as it started it was quiet again. I cleared the path to the open back door and led the way through the three story house. On the second landing there were three dead unarmed bodies, probably a maid, cook and butler or some shit. Sorry they were caught in the cross fire, but if we had just blown up the house they would have all been dead anyway.

Most of the men that had come in the front of the house, already lined the hallway on either side of the door I had identified as Sergio's bedroom. We all crowded around the door certain that whomever was on the other side of it was armed. I signaled silence to all of my men, leaned my assault rifle against the door jam and crouched down in front of the door as I pulled out an unregistered .40 Glock. I slowly turned the handle and pushed the door open a hair's width so the doorknob was no longer engaged. There was no sound from the other side of the door as I slowly began to creak it open.

To be continued….

A/N: Thank you all for your reviews! I appreciate them all. We are heading into the action and next posting Friday. Enjoy! Please read and review.

As always big THANK YOU to my beta Sassysaint for all your encouragement!

Second Big THANK YOU to my sister, Jonelle. Thank you for fixing all my many little mistakes.


	27. Chapter 27 The End is Nigh

Chapter 27 The End is Nigh

A/N Most of this chapter is spoken in Spanish. To make it easy and readable assume everything in italics is being spoken in Spanish. Thank you!

I am so grateful, thankful and moved by all your reviews. I know everyone may not read this whole chapter so I wanted to do a shout out in the beginning, Thank you in no particular order: Garbanzobeans, Shellbell78, Angie Muller, Elenimou, Trhodes09, Buddy'sbabe, Baileygirl12, VulcanRider, Aruvqan, Humming Birrd, The newest daughter, First Generation Scot, Avid Reader 59, and Zoebabe579. Thank you to all my guest reviewers I appreciate all of you, Especially my guest reviewer who likes to remind me to post on Friday mornings because honestly I get busy in the morning and sometimes forget! Thank you all! We writers are "paid" in reviews and as you know reviews feed the Muse!

****Violence warning in this chapter. For all those blood thirsty people that can't wait to see what Ranger will do read on…. If you are squeamish stop at the ******* and pick it up for an overview in the next chapter.

Saturday May 22 22:20

 _Most of the men that had come in the front of the house, already lined the hallway on either side of the door I had identified as Sergio's bedroom. We all crowded around the door certain that whomever was on the other side of it was armed. I signaled silence to all of my men, leaned my assault rifle against the door jam and crouched down in front of the door as I pulled out an unregistered .40 glock. I slowly turned the handle and pushed the door open a hair's width so the doorknob was no longer engaged. There was no sound from the other side of the door as I slowly began to creak it open._

Then without warning there was gunfire blowing holes straight through the door, where my chest would have been if I had been standing. I flung the door open as I fired on two men that were waiting there with machine guns. Killing them both instantly and easily, I came to my feet and charged Sergio, knocking the gun he had in his hands to the floor and watching as he crawled backward onto his bed, grabbing the girl that was there and pulling her in front of him for protection. In that same second the room was flooded with heavily armed men.

I stepped forward, holstering my gun and carefully pried her out of his grasp. She was crying and begging for us not to hurt her. I just took her carefully in my arms and hushed her for a moment wanting her to calm down so I could tell if it had been shadows or actual bruises across her swollen face. After a moment I told her it was all going to be okay, that we were good men come to take her away to safety. She looked up at me and I gasped inside. On paper it may have said she was fifteen, but she was a slight little thing, dressed up in woman's lingerie and looked to be barely ten.

I couldn't help it, I pulled my gun and fired without thought at his crotch making a hole through his pajamas, where his dick would have been if he'd had one. He gasped and backed up but didn't bleed or grab himself letting me know either he was really really small or his dick had crawled up inside him. Being proudly well endowed, as Stephanie liked to remind me, I certainly would have felt that shot if fired upon me. There is nowhere for my dick to hide to prevent injury from a shot like that.

" _What is your name?"_ I asked her, lifting her face to look at mine and trying to soften my expression and pretend I was talking to Julie. Trying to hold in the anger at the fresh bruises I saw there.

" _Camilia"_

" _Camilia how old are you?"_

" _Eleven"_ She whispered crying again. Fucking _bastardo_ had changed her paperwork so it would seem like she was older than she was.

" _Camilia, we are good men. He is a bad man. We are going to take you somewhere safe. Somewhere far away from here and he will never hurt you again. Do you understand?"_ She nodded at me. _"_ _Go get some traveling clothes. Some jeans and a t-shirt."_ I specified.

She shook her head at me. _"No traveling clothes. Only night clothes."_ So not only did he have her locked away where she couldn't escape he didn't even give her decent clothes to wear. I walked her over to the dresser.

" _Which ones are yours?"_ She pointed at the top two drawers. Upon opening them there were all kinds of negligées and lingerie but nothing that covered more than the fuchsia, skin tight, crotchless teddy she had on.

" _What do you wear during the day?"_ She went to her closet and pulled out a knee length pink cloth nightgown and robe.

" _Do you have any shoes?"_ I asked her. She pointed to several pairs of slippers and there was one pair of sandals. I grabbed the nightgown, robe and sandals, a real bra and panty set even though she didn't look like she had boobs yet and shoved them into her arms. I took her over to the bathroom and told her to get dressed.

Muerte was standing right there waiting. "Give her to Afable, have him take her to the kitchen to see if she needs something to eat then to the vehicles. Don't let her see what's on the second floor and turn on the radio so she doesn't hear what is going on in the house. Tell him it's going to be several hours."

"Done"

Several of my men were making many threats to Sergio. He was only five foot eight inches tall, had started going grey since I'd last seen him and had a definite paunch around the middle. Minutes later Camilia came out, was picked up and carried away.

My men were chomping at the bit. All of us were strong men who protected the weak and all of them wanted to pay this man back for abusing that little girl. As soon as she was down the stairs I announced, "Thirty minutes. take turns, tenderize him, but don't kill him." and I walked out the door, too disgusted at such a horrible human being. Of course he could threaten beating and raping Julie, he did it in his daily life and thought nothing of it. I would have liked to get my hands on him, but I knew I needed to wait. I wanted him to suffer and right now I needed to regain my control before I handled him.

I found Hector and together we searched the bottom floor and specifically his office. There we found his monogramed brown briefcase and black leather messenger bag with his laptop. I picked the lock on the briefcase and found two phones, lots of paperwork and as I was hoping two checkbooks.

" _Hector do you have the folder I gave you?"_ He disappeared back outside and returned carrying two bags and holding a folder.

" _Si"_ He handed me the folder that Tank had brought from Bones, it was thicker since I had added to it.

I took out several sheets of paper. The first was a list of the new personal and business accounts Bones had opened for me. The second was a concise list of all his personal accounts, the accounts for all seven companies he was CEO of and the accounts for the eleven businesses under those. Next were the sheets of the other hundreds of accounts going to his hundred plus businesses, organized by the banks that held them.

As I checked the numbers against the list of accounts I had; one was for his cargo shipping business, the second was for his main private account. I sat down at his desk and studied both checkbooks and other handwritten notes in his briefcase. Then I wrote out two checks, copying his handwriting, and emptying both accounts.

" _Transfer everything from his personal accounts to this personal account for me."_ I pointed to the first in a list of names and accounts with passwords written just for him. _"Split everything from his business accounts. I want at least twenty five million in this business account and the rest in the second business account."_ I handed Hector the first list of Sergio's business accounts he had created for me. _"If you happen to get through that, work on this third list. The last list is if you happen to get to it tonight, but you can work on it throughout the weekend and even into Monday. If you need help feel free to send some of it to Bones. Bring his laptop upstairs, there is a small vanity and stool at the bottom of the bed. You can set up there and plug everything in. I want him to see you taking all of his money."_

Hector grinned wickedly at me. _"Yes boss, I will take my pleasure taking him for everything."_

" _And Hector, thank you for coming. I was going to have you do it all from Haywood but this is much better, doing it in front of him."_

" _Yes, I will enjoy watching him bleed and when they are done I will add my knife too."_ I nodded to him and went on my next quest.

On the bottom floor I found Snark, and together we went looking for Negro. We found him upstairs enjoying the entertainment in the bedroom. I pulled them both out in the hallway where they had dragged the bodies of the dead guards I had killed. I had two more lists, the two checks and many forms in the folder for Sergio to sign.

"I have a list of things I need from him. You determine the best order to do them in. First, I have two checks for him to sign. Second," I opened the folder, "I have twelve forms, where he is resigning and selling me his businesses, stocks and all interests for one dollar and naming me CEO. These need to stay in pristine condition. Well, at least no blood or bodily fluids on them. These are transfer of ownership papers that will have to be filed in court. Third, I need the codes to get into his phones. Here are two phones, I think he has a third in his bedroom."

"Forth," I handed Snark another sheet of paper. "I need the contact names and numbers for each of these cartels listed on the top of this sheet that he deals with. Fifth, I need the numbers to contact the bottom half of this list of names. They may just be in his phone under their name or business, these should be the easiest. He does millions of dollars a year in business with them, he should be on a first name basis. Last," I held up the final sheet of paper. "I need the names and numbers for the managers for each of these businesses. Start with these top three. I need those the most. These other eleven I have the names of the CEOs, verify that those are the correct names and go through his phone and get numbers for them. I need office numbers not cell numbers. They maybe under business names listed in his phones." I handed him the entire folder.

"Actually while you are getting the codes to unlock the phones get the name and number of the man in the US he hired to take out my family. The one who keeps hiring men to kidnap my women. If you didn't know, the men are playing with Sergio for thirty minutes of which they have," I paused to look at my watch, "twelve minutes left. Then it is your turn. While you are working Hector is going to set up in front of him and drain all his accounts. You can point it out to him and let him watch. The checks are for fun, they aren't important, Hector is going to drain him dry. You can have him sign in blood if you want. Snark you are the lead but Negro is a great torturer, use him to tag team. And please gentlemen, enjoy your work. I will be in and out but I don't want to be a distraction to him."

I left them to get set up and went back downstairs. Twelve minutes later I walked back up the stairs to muffled thuds, grunts and groans. I walked in to find Sergio on the floor. Basher and Star hoisted him up and Bullet continued tenderizing his mid-section.

"Set him on the bed." I ordered and noted with satisfaction that Snark and Negro were both there, with a bag of equipment looking ready to go. Hector had snuck in and was busy setting up all his electronics.

Sergio sat bent over on his bed holding his midsection and listing to the right as he moaned to himself. My men had worked him over well. His face was a battered mess with blood running from an obviously broken nose and from a cut on his cheek. His lips were split, bruised and swollen. He had bruises forming on his exposed arms and probably all over his midsection.

"Great job boys! Good warm up. There will be a lot more torture and trauma later I can use your help with. You are also welcome to watch this next part." I opened my Smart Recorder voice recording program and hit record; I wanted to get him telling me that he is going to kill my women and me no matter what, without the video that would show him beat up.

" _Sergio, this is fun right?"_ I smiled at him. _"This is the exact kind of fun you imagined when you put hits out on all the women in my family."_

" _Fuck you."_ He glared at me.

" _Exactly what did you think was going to happen when you did that? Was I just supposed to sit around and let your men kidnap and torture my mother, my daughter, every woman in my family and then me?"_ He didn't give any answer. _"Did you think I was just going to lay down and take it?"_ He still didn't answer.

" _I want to have an actual conversation with you. No fists, just words, can you do that?"_ He looked at me and nodded.

" _What will you give me to go away now that I have taken all this trouble to come see you personally?"_

" _Nothing"_

" _Will you call off the hits on the women in my family?"_

" _No"_

" _Are you going to stop trying to send men to kill me?"_

He just glared at me resolutely. _"I'll take that glare as a no."_

" _Come on Sergio you're not giving me many reasons to spare your life and the lives of your family. I think that's a fair trade. Kill your family to save mine. Since I didn't actually start or want any of this."_

" _Fuck you, you can't kill my family."_

" _Why not? You put hits out on all the women in my family. Are you willing to remove those hits? Will you call the guy right now on the phone and call the whole thing off?"_

He just glared at me. _"Again I will take that 'go die' look as a No."_

" _I'm trying to negotiate for my life and the lives of my women. They are priceless to me. I would spend ten times what I'm worth and go into debt for the rest of my life to save theirs. I would go into debt one hundred times what I'm worth to save my own. How much debt are you willing to go into to save your life and the lives of your children?"_

" _Go to hell."_ Sergio said.

" _So your life and the lives of your family are not worth that much to you. How much are you willing to pay me to go away? What is your life and the lives of your children worth? You're worth billions. I would take three billion, eight hundred million dollars. That's billion with a B. I would gladly pack up my men right now and go home."_

" _Fuck you, I'm not giving you all my money."_ Sergio spat at me.

" _What would it take? You're a rich man, worth billions. One of your shipping companies and your emerald mine?"_

" _Hell no, I'm not giving you shit."_

" _What about a discounted deal. Ten percent of what you are worth. I would take three hundred eighty million dollars and you remove the death threats from my family and me and you promise to leave us alone forever."_

He spit blood on my boot. _"Nothing, I'm giving you nothing. If you kill me your life and the lives of all your women will be forfeited. You do anything to me and this will never end for you."_

" _So you have cost me millions of dollars, you want my life and the lives of all the women in my family and you want me to just leave you alone and let you kill us? What did I ever do to deserve this?"_

" _You got in my way. You are a bug and I'm going to squash you and all your little buggy relatives. Now I am adding all the men in your family too."_ I'm really starting to think he has a few too many screws loose.

" _So that's your great offer to me. You want me to leave you alone for free and lay down and let you kill me and all my relatives. For something I did as a soldier? For following orders that I would have been court marshalled for not following? You know if you had a problem with the American President and his orders you're out of luck, he's no longer in office."_

" _My problem is you! You're such a smart ass. You and your men showed up and took the land away. You killed one of my best men. It's all your fault, it cost me over twenty five million dollars to buy up the land after that!"_ He was yelling at me spittle flying off his lips.

" _That was years ago. You got the land, you got the mine, you've made millions why are you coming after me now?"_

" _Boris"_

" _The Boris you sent after me? The one in the States trying to kill my women?"_ I was trying to get some answers that made sense.

" _Boris Gonzalez."_

" _What about Boris Gonzalez?"_

" _We got drinking one night and he gave me twenty five million dollars to take you down. He showed me proof that you were after me and I knew I had to take you out. So I took his money and he insisted I had to torment you, make you bleed money, make you lose the things that are most important to you and then kill you."_

" _That's why all the video recordings for proof."_

" _Yes I have to have proof to show him."_

" _What's his number I'll have a talk with him for you, get you out of that deal."_

" _No there is no end. This is my life or yours and you have to die."_

" _Sergio how about less than half a percent of what you are worth? Fifteen million dollars. Your businesses make more than that a month. Fifteen million dollars and I take my men and go away."_

" _No there's nothing you can do! Your life and the lives of all your women! You have to die! No matter what so do they! No matter what you do this will never end for you!"_ He was screaming at me before he launched himself at me but I easily stepped back and knocked him to the ground. It was obvious that even with all my heavily armed men in the room he still thinks somehow he is too important for us to kill and that I'm just going to let him go.

I wanted to pull my gun out and blow a hole in his diseased brain. Obviously, his elevator was no longer going all the way to the top. The deck of cards he was playing with was missing a lot more than just the jokers and aces. He was no longer able to match the dots in the domino game of his life. He had seriously lost his marbles and they were scattered all over the floor.

But I didn't feel sorry for him. If he wasn't such a money hungry, narcissistic, self-important, disturbing pedophile he would remember not to fuck with people's lives and make stupid deals. But he sees himself as so far above everyone else, that we are his bugs to step on, that it didn't matter to him. It was just a game to him. He thought he could do it and get away with it. I turned my phone recorder off and went over to Snark and Negro and spoke to them in English.

"He seems to no longer be in his right mind. He's got more than just a few screws loose. You may be able to just lie to him and tell him those forms are something he needs to sign so we leave him alone. I'm not sure, I've never interrogated someone that was losing their mental faculties. Crazy, yes, all day long, but his red balloon is floating so high he's up in the atmosphere. Reality and him are no longer friends. If either of you want to back out now let me know."

"No Ranger, this only makes it more interesting. We'll get your forms signed and then we will get the rest out of him too. Maybe with less torture and more bending his beliefs." Snark said.

"Okay, one more thing to add to your list and this comes right after the information on that first page, after the cartels and business partners; I need to know everything about this Boris Gonzalez. Do your best." I told them and went over to Hector.

" _All set up. Once I crack his computer any bank passwords he has saved will be really easy."_ Hector said as he stroked his laptop and the super-secret code breaking, password exposing, PIN identifying, mother's maiden name unearthing, first pet discovering, street you lived on recognizing mini-computer that now sat between the laptops.

The single most important piece of electronics in his arsenal, he programmed it himself to hack into anything electronic from a security pad, to an ATM, to a super computer and reveal its secrets. Like rubbing a puppy's stomach and getting him to roll over, this little device tricks and soothes until whatever electronic device it is tickling happily rolls over and exposes everything.

" _Keep me informed."_ With Sergio gone nuts and me being a trigger I felt it was even more important for me to be out of the room. I went downstairs to pace and wait. It was now 01:15. I could only give them an hour and we had to move this party along. I walked past the many dead bodies to the peaceful calm of the flowing river. I stood staring at the quickly flowing waters of the Rio Apure glistening in the moonlight and I thought about that video and Stephanie being in it. Muktar's untimely death for saving her, this _bastardo_ getting hold of Julie. Her being bought at age ten and being regularly raped and beaten by a man old enough to be her grandfather.

There was no question he was going to die and all his family too. I was still going to take everything, destroy everything, kill everyone, but now I couldn't deny the grain of sadness that crept through my mind. A small bit of the satisfaction I wanted to feel wouldn't be there because mentally his feet were no longer touching the ground, not just because he was a stupid vindictive asshole. Eventually, I heard regular screaming and I knew they were making progress.

At 02:15 I went back upstairs. Hangman was in the hallway and I asked if he brought his tools. He just disappeared down the hall and I knew he would return with a bag. I walked into the bedroom and surveyed the situation.

*****************Violence Warning******************

****************Sergio gets Rangerfied***************

*******Skip to the next chapter if you are squeamish*******

Sergio was sitting up naked, back to his headboard arms spread wide tied to each corner. His fingers bleeding, bruised and smashed. Cuts, bruises and burns up and down both arms. Torture devices nicely lined up along the bottom of the bed, some of them bloody, others waiting to be used. He currently had a long thin very sharp knife shoved in one cheek, through his tongue and out the other cheek trying to talk while blood pooled and pored out of his mouth and down his cut and burned chest and abdomen on top of his blooming bruises.

Negro put a modified electric stun gun to his chest and pulled the trigger, the volts high enough to send sparks and pain all through out his body but not enough amps to cause him to black out. As his face twitched all the holes in his cheeks and tongue grew bigger. If they were shredding him like this they had gotten as much useful information out of him as they were going to get. Negro pulled out the knife and shocked him again.

I walked over to Snark and he handed me the folder. I opened it to find all the papers and checks signed. On one check he wrote 'with my love' and on the other he wrote 'I'm sorry'. The cartel information was clear and there was a 4th cartel listed with contact information. All his business contacts were filled in. On the second page he had the same man listed for most of the eleven businesses but Snark made notes on the page that many of these businesses were listed in one of the three phones that were lined across the bed with the tools.

At the bottom were the phone numbers for each phone and the specific uses for each. One was only for contacting the cartels. One was used for his illegal cocaine and uranium businesses. The last held all his personal and legitimate business contacts. On the back page was a brief bio on Boris Gonzalez. He was a 54 years old, multi-millionaire worth much less than Sergio. Married with several mostly grown children. His address and phone number were listed. Underneath it was written Santiago Martinez. "The Saint" and a phone number.

I had heard of "The Saint". He was a killer for hire that sent you to meet your maker for the right price. If he was the one after the women, they would have already been dead if not for the kidnap, torture and rape scenario Sergio or Boris or whomever had determined should come first. I took the paperwork and his phones and stored them safely in my bag.

"When you are done tie him to the bed like the woman in the video."

I pulled out my phone, hit record and thought I would try again.

I got in his face. _"Sergio, Sergio."_ It took a minute before his eyes focused on mine.

" _What would you pay me now to end all this?"_

He didn't answer me.

" _What would it take for you to call the hits off all my women and me?"_

Again no response.

" _How much would it cost me for you to leave me and my family alone?"_

" _One hundred million dollars."_ He slurred at me.

" _For what?"_ I was stunned.

" _One hundred million dollars a year for the rest of your life and I'll remove the hits and leave you and your women alone."_ Blood pooled out of his mouth and ran down his chest. His shredded tongue barely forming some of the words. But his lips quirked up in a small smile at the thought of getting all that money out of me. He may be crazy but his greed facility was still in good working order. I clicked off my phone.

" _No deal."_ I told him to his widening eyes. He acted surprised like in this situation he had any room to bargain.

" _Sergio, remember the movie? The movie they sent you of my woman. The one they tied down and beat and raped and stabbed?"_ I could see recognition forming in his eyes.

" _Your woman?"_ he slurred blood continuing to run out of his mouth as he spoke.

" _Yes, my woman."_

He smiled a wider smile at me. _"Got her good."_ He said.

" _Yes you did and now it's your turn. We are going to do everything to you that you had done to her. Does that sound fair?"_ He nodded at me still smiling before thinking it through and shaking his head.

" _But we are going to add a few things."_ Hangman had been back with his bag and already plugged in the heater that would quickly heat up to a red hot iron. Then he handed me large cutters. They were thick steel cutters like large fingernail cutters, with long padded handles that scissored up and down, opening and closing the two inch wide super sharp edges. I pressed them against the heater and after a few moments they were starting to glow red. Then I turned around to face Sergio, still tied to the headboard of the bed.

" _Hold his legs open."_ I ordered and Snark and Jack-Knife each grabbed an ankle and spread his legs wide. I walked forward and waved the red hot device in his face making him think I was coming towards it, quickly I angled down, as he screamed, lopped off his dick and unintentionally one ball. I quickly lopped off the other ball. The cutters were so red hot they cauterized as they cut so he didn't bleed much. He was screaming bloody murder and the smell of burnt flesh and hair filled the air. I'd had enough of his screaming. I walked back over to the wall and pressed the cutters against the red hot iron until they were glowing again.

I nodded to Hangman. "His tongue." He pulled out two tools. One that pried mouths open and tongs to catch and pull out the tongue. He followed me over to the bed and, leaning over Sergio, started trying to catch his screaming tongue. On his third try he caught it and pulled it so hard Sergio's whole head was drug forward. I waisted no time and lopped it off, only getting two-thirds across my first try and snipping again to get the rest. The burning smell of blood mixed into the already acrid air.

Now blood was really pooling down his mouth and I held out my hand and asked for duct tape. I quickly tore off a long piece, scooped up his withering dick and balls, shoved them in his mouth and duct taped it closed, quickly adding two more pieces. This was a good thing because he was now much quieter, trying not to choke to death on his own blood.

" _Sergio I'm giving you the chance to suck on your own dick and balls."_ I told him as he shook his face side to side trying to dislodge the tape on his mouth and his privates floating inside.

"Tie him face down. Legs off the bed." As Hangman, Snark and Negro worked to follow my orders I turned and offered, "Ten thousand dollar bonus for any man who fucks him!"

Considering I was paying them half a million already, ten thousand wasn't that much but it might motivate somebody and sure enough they were lining up. Hangman was first dropping his pants, unceremoniously ramming a thick dick into Sergio and began pounding away. Just like in the video, several more men began stroking themselves.

I walked over to Hector to see how he was doing.

" _Gangbusters boss. Like taking cake from a baby. Once I cracked his computer all his codes were on there, and the bitch is stupid. All the similar accounts at each bank have the same exact passwords. They must change them all every month and keep them the same so he can remember them. Like here."_ He pointed at one list with his finger. _"All of them Cristal05. I have sent most of this list to Bones. He has faster and safer internet than I have here or on the plane. Sergio may be rich but his internet is very slow. That's what's taking so long."_

" _How much have you transferred so far?"_ He just handed me the sheet not wanting to read a bunch of financial totals out loud. In the personal account he transferred three figures. I roughly counted 3.7 billion, give or take a few million. In the first business account he had transferred right around twenty five and a half million. In the second account, I pulled out my phone to calculate the long list of numbers. There was over eight hundred million dollars so far and counting. I wasn't doing this for the money and I knew to keep my family safe I was going to have to pay a lot of this money to his business partners. But I was going to keep enough that if the women in my life had to run for the rest of their lives I would get them all new identities and relocate the entire family somewhere safe.

It is almost impossible to create a hit that lasts forever, someone has to be there to put out the hit, manage the money either as cash or in a bank account, verify the kill and then pay the money out. Unless you hire and pay a league of assassins who are just going to keep sending people until the hit is complete. That obviously wasn't the case here as The Saint is hiring whomever he can find. The random group of mercenaries before. The gang members in California. It's the man behind the hiring that could have been paid to make sure the job gets done, in which case it would stop when he is stopped and for that we would set a trap. Between this Boris person and The Saint I now knew whom to target.

Dago was busy pumping away inside Sergio now, as he thrashed back and forth trying to dislodge the offending intruder and Dago hung on enjoying the ride slamming into him as hard and as fast as he could. When he was done Ice came up right behind him and added to his fun by stabbing two short knives, one into each side, right below his ribcage and hanging on to them rather than his flesh. When he was finished Jack-knife stepped up and complained about all the blood on his sides and Ice said to hang onto his hips.

A puddle of semen was forming on the floor and I tapped Hector on his shoulder and pointed to the mess.

" _Oh yes boss, I have the finishing touch when the men are through."_

I started a running list of the men who were taking care of Sergio for me and as the total entered thirteen at 10,000 a pop it was going to cost me more than I was expecting but for this I was happy to pay.

" _Your turn Ranger?"_ Negro asked as he pumped wildly.

" _No, my dick is broken."_

" _Broken? The great Ranger can't get it up?"_

" _No it's pussy whipped."_

" _Women the only thing that turns you on, all you have to do is use that imagination. One hot hole is like another."_

" _No it's more particular than that. It only gets up for one woman. But once she's around it's a continual hard-on. All night long, no matter how many times we do it."_

" _Sure and how many times can you do it?"_ He smirked.

" _On average six times a night but eight with her is my highest."_

" _What's your all time highest?"_

" _In one night?"_

" _In one twenty four hour period?"_

" _I used fifteen condoms one night. And that was more like ten hours."_

I was laughing to myself knowing every man in the room was straining to hear what my answer was and knowing none of them could beat me. I felt somewhat obligated to explain why I wasn't fucking the guy who had so fully fucked with my women and my life. Beyond this was men's talk that you didn't do while you were fucking women because the women think you are talking to them and if you're not, you're just being rude. But I could talk to him while he was mindlessly pounding away and it was some how relaxing. Weird.

I looked at my watch again and it had been over an hour. Man some of these guys fuck so fast it's a wonder any woman is satisfied with them.

" _Hector we're almost ready for clean-up here."_ I told him.

Hector logged off all the computers and smiled at me. _"One minute"_ and he was out the door. Three minutes later I heard him pounding back up the stairs with enthusiasm.

He arrived in the room with a bag and a bottle of bleach. He pulled out a three foot long round tube and waited for Lover Boy to get done.

"Damn getting the feeling that this has to be a rush job." Lover Boy said as he slammed his way to a speedy finish. When he pulled out Hector immediately started shoving the thick tubing up Sergio's ass. Many inches later he stopped feeding it in. Then he handed the bottle of bleach to me and topped the tubing with a funnel. I opened the bottle of bleach and poured it in, Sergio reacting immediately bucking and making squealing noises out of his nose. I poured until the tube was full. Hector took out the funnel and applied a blue rubber ball with an opening onto the end of the tube and began squeezing it. It slowly was pumping air into the tube forcing all the bleach in the tube up into his intestines while he writhed in pain.

When all the liquid was in him Hector pulled out a massive black cock. It was about a foot and a half long and so massive it put Stephanie's Herbert Horsecock to shame. Seriously it had to be about ten inches in diameter or bigger than four inches across. I had no knowledge of asses and stuffing things into them so I asked, _"Is it going to fit?"_

Hector gave a wicked grin and said, _"Not easily, you will need much force and good timing."_ He handed the massive cock my way. _"As soon as the tube is out stuff it in."_

I waited as he slowly pulled the tube out and I couldn't believe how much was up there. Then he said, _"Now"_ and pulled the rest of the tubing out and I put the tip to his ass and began pressing in but there was a lot of resistance and it only went in like two inches.

" _Twist"_ Hector directed and I got behind this thing with my arms and my legs and really started pushing and twisting and it was slowing stretching his hole ginormous as I crammed this thing up there and god I could feel his body stretching beyond pain with every inch that it entered and it felt good. I was encouraged by the straining moan and thrashing Sergio was doing trying to crawl up the bed and get away from the pain as it must feel like I was splitting him in half.

About halfway in he started flopping around like a fish then coming up onto his toes and trying mightily to push it out. Starr and Frizz were close and I asked each man to grab a leg and pull him back down. I took a step back and a wicked grin came across my face before I put my foot against the end of the dildo and pressed hard against the enormous black plastic cock. Sergio moaned out and wrenched around in pain as it slowly sank in. I stepped in closer and did it again having to press harder and having it only sink in a little ways. When I pressed against it a third time I only met with resistance. Hector put a hand on my arm.

" _That's as far as it will go."_ He told me and pointed to Sergio's back where his spine and hip bones were sticking out, stretched to capacity. _"Time for the whip."_ He finished as he poured the rest of the bottle of bleach out on the walnut stained hardwood floor, washing away the large pile of semen that had accumulated there.

I nodded the barest of movements and returned to my bag. This stock whip had three tails of unfinished rawhide that was exceptionally rough. It had never been made to crack, only made for the whipping of men on ships many years ago. The lack of dried blood on its ends made me think it had never before been used for its intended purpose but tonight was going to make up for all that.

I stood at the foot of the bed, Sergio being tied sideways across the bed one arm tied to the far top, one to the far bottom corner and his legs down off the side resting on the floor.

" _Sergio"_ I called his name.

" _Sergio"_ I called again. Then I just lifted his sweat soaked hair and turned his face towards the foot of the bed. I brought the whip down across his outstretched arms and he jumped. I did it again and he turned to look at his arms, I did it a third time and I could tell he was focusing in on the pain.

" _Sergio we are going to continue replaying the video in real life for you but since all of our belts are holding up our guns; I brought a real life whip to use on you. We will start giving every man twenty strokes and there are twenty five of us so that is five hundred strokes. We'll see if you can live through that."_

I stood back and took my first swing, relishing in his muffled screams and whip marks. Knowing every moment also brought more pain from the monster dildo lodged inside him. I swung again and deep red slashes formed across his back. On the sixth swing I cut through skin and blood appeared. By the fifteenth swing blood was starting to ooze on his back. I got to twenty but couldn't stop. All the pain, fear and anger at all he had put me through, put Stephanie through, put my family through drove me on.

The video that had etched itself on my heart thinking it was Stephanie. The prostitute that was tortured and killed. Mucktar's sacrifice. All of the men he sent that I and my men have had to kill. My arm kept swinging and swinging until finally it started to burn from the repetitive motion and somewhere over a hundred, I stopped. His back was ripped to shreds, blood running down his sides. Starting now it all began to resolve, my heart began to feel lighter, and I could let the pain go. I took a deep breath and held up the whip.

"I went a little overboard. So that everyone gets some, start with fifteen strokes each, pass it around." Tank was by my side removing the offending object and turning to take aim. I stood there watching. Still laughing at the giant dick shoved up his ass. That was the best surprise of the day. It was now 03:25 by 04:30 we had to be leaving.

I walked out to the vehicles that had all been brought inside the gate now and found Camilia and Afable were playing cards in the front seat of an old baby blue Cadillac that was from the 70's but looked like a beat up relative of Big Blue. I got in the backseat and leaned forward to see what they were playing.

"What are we playing?" I asked loudly over the loud radio.

"Toruro"

I had never played it but knew it was a three card game like poker, played with a forty card deck rather than the US 52 card deck. It explained the unused pile of cards sitting on the dash.

"How is she doing?" I asked in English.

"Doing well. Why don't you ask her?"

" _Camilia,"_ I turned to the young girl. _"How are you doing?"_

" _Good, this is fun. I used to play this with my Papi. But Alfi is better at loosing. He's lost a lot of games."_

" _Camilia we are going to be leaving here soon. Do you want to go to a new country? Where you will have a new family and go to a new school? Or is there some place else you'd rather go?_

" _Where is my Mami and Papi? I thought you would take me home."_

" _Camilia your parents sold you to a very bad man. Are you sure that they will want you back?"_

" _Yes Mami didn't want to, she was crying and begging him not to take me. The men pulled guns on Papi to make him let go and took me by force. They didn't want to sell me."_

My first instinct was to bring her back to the US and make her new papers. Give her a new life and an education. But maybe her parents are missing her and want her back. She probably has siblings and a whole extended family that would celebrate her return.

I got lost in the mindless peace of them playing cards and thought about what was next. I had planned to leave this house and his tortured body as a notice to my enemies but now I was thinking better of it. Best to blow it up and burn it down, get audio and video of it all and send that to my enemies.

" _Keep having fun, we leave soon."_ I told them as I got back out of the car.

I turned my phone camera on and took stills and video of all the dead bodies in the front and backyard. Then I went back upstairs and videoed Sergio's mutilated body still getting whipped. His back down his legs to his knees and his arms, shoulders to hands were a raw bloody mess and Hairy was happily working on his calves and feet. I videoed it and took still shots of him, getting close ups of the large prosthetic stuck up his ass.

"How many of you still need a turn?" I asked the assembled group in the bedroom.

Several of them raised their hands. I looked at my watch again, we had time.

"I need video and pictures of this night's events. Can everyone send me what they have?"

"I've got it all on video." Rascal said. Showing a palm sized video camera in his hand.

"Excellent. I've decided we will make our own documentary of the night and blow this house with everyone in it to smithereens. Who has any kind of explosives?"

"I have another RPG." Basher said.

"I have some C-4. Star said.

"I have a bag full of stuff." Grenade said.

"I have a couple of hellfires." Bomber said.

"Ok, hate to break up a good time but I need every man not waiting for his turn, downstairs to carry all the bodies into the living room and pile all explosives by the front door so we can go through them and decide what we will use. Except you Rascal. Keep making that video." I told the men. Most of them went quietly out to do what was asked, but I heard a little grumbling about missing the grand finale.

It was taking each man less than a minute to dole out the fifteen strokes even when they took a moment to aim every stroke. I went down stairs with them and helped to pile up the bodies. When we were through most of the men followed me back upstairs. I asked who still needed a turn with the whip and Hector who was whipping away said he was the last one.

When he was done I motioned for Rascal to zoom in on Sergio's face. I pulled my little unregistered ankle gun from its holster and cut his left hand loose. I put the gun in his hand and wrapped his fingers around it. I lifted up his head and unceremoniously ripped the duct tape from his mouth watching his balls and shrunken dick fall out with a mouthful of blood onto the bedspread.

I shoved the gun into his mouth and whispered that I was going to torture him until he killed himself. He just sat there gun in his mouth waiting to see what was going to happen next. I went back over to Hangman's discarded bag and took the cutters out again. I sang 'this little piggy went to market' as I cut each toe off his left foot. He kept moving his foot back and forth screaming, the gun falling in front of his mouth laying limply against the bed. I pinned his calf down with my foot and finished the song.

I grabbed the duct tape and taped the gun into his mouth. Then I dug around in Hangman's bag and found a nail gun with four-inch nails in it. I reminded Sergio that all he had to do was pull the trigger for relief and nailed each of his feet to the floor. I drove three more nails into each foot and then one into each calf. I skipped his thighs and drove several into each ass cheek while he flailed around. Then I bent low and shoving it up between his legs, where his dick used to be. I fired a nail into him and BLAM! He pulled the trigger.

Brain matter sprayed up the bed to the wall, red and white chunks accumulated across the gold paisley spread. I took the knife from the sheath strapped to my side and stuck it into his back. I took pictures of it and had Rascal get video of both sides. I motioned for Rascal to wrap it up, wiped off all of Hangman's equipment, and put them back in his bag.

I quickly unwrapped the gun, carefully removing it without disturbing his bloody prints and put it into one of the pillow cases, not wanting to handle it more than necessary. Then, as an afterthought, added his tongue. balls and dick.

There were quite a few bags along the wall, where we had all dumped our stuff after capturing Sergio. I grabbed my bag, adding the pillowcase, grabbed Hangman's bag and motioned to the guys to pick up the rest. I stopped in the hall to get my LSAT that was still leaning by the doorframe and carried it down the stairs with me. I lined the bags and gun up by the front door and started going through the pile of explosives laid out on the floor.

I signaled Tank and he followed me up the stairs. We could do this so Sergio just disappeared, no body to be found, and that would serve my purposes. Tank helped me pull his feet up from the floor, some of the nails pulling through his feet leaving holes rather than giving up their perch. We pulled the body fully up onto the bed and wrapped his body in the blanket. I hoisted him onto my shoulder and carried him down and added him to the top of the pile like a cherry to finish my masterpiece.

I instructed Grenade to set the C-4 blocks up in each corner of the house on a fifteen minute timers and carefully laid the Hellfires in two strips down the pile of bodies. I instructed Basher to RPG the house once we were all loaded up and getting ready to drive away. We didn't have timers for the Hellfires and they can only be started with a special hot flame like a magnesium sparkler. I expected the explosion of the RPG would light them.

I pulled out an aerial view of the local airport, with the longitude and latitude on it. I got Bomber and Skeleton together and asked if they could take his car to the airport. Park it in his hanger there and fly his plane back to the main hanger in Colombia where Sergio kept all his planes. Meeting up with the rest of us there. It would leave in question where he was exactly since his body would never be found.

"Load up" I ordered to everyone and they grabbed their equipment and guns and headed out the door. Basher chose to sit in the back of the pickup truck Jack-knife had used to ram the blown-up gate, RPG poised proudly on his shoulder ready to take out the house. I chose to sit in the passenger seat of our beat up, 1995 red Ford Bronco letting Tank drive back to the airport. Forty five minutes later we parked the car in an apartment complex parking lot. Tank locked it up and we started jogging back to the plane. Twenty minutes later everyone was arriving back at the plane and getting loaded up. At 05:45 we were leaving for good.

The pilots had taken to sleeping in the first class leather seats while we were gone, which was good, it meant they would be fresher for the next short leg of our trip.

To be continued….

A/N: Thank you all for your reviews! Hope you enjoyed Ranger's revenge. He definitely did. Please read and review.

As always big THANK YOU to my beta Sassysaint you keep me going!

Second Big THANK YOU to my sister, Jonelle. Thank you for fixing all my many little mistakes.


	28. Ch 28 Burning DownBlowing Up Columbia

Chapter 28 Burning Colombia Down

A/N Ranger is still in Colombia on phone calls and in meetings so once again for ease of reading please assume everything in italics is spoken in Spanish.

 **Update for those that skipped the last chapter:** Sergio was caught. His "mistress" Camilia has been rescued. Sergio refused to make any deal with Ranger and Ranger records him saying he wants Ranger and his whole family to die. Hector gets Sergio's laptop and empties all of his bank accounts. Snark and Negro "work" on Sergio to get him to sign paperwork and get a list of business contacts and their phone numbers. Then Ranger sets about having his men repeat the DVD and do everything done to the prostitute to Sergio. After being beaten, tortured, raped and whipped Ranger took his own ankle gun, put it in Sergio's hand and stuck it in his mouth, then tortured Sergio till he blew his own head off.

All the bodies were collected and piled up. They were covered by two strips of GroundXR Hellfires, that are made of thermite. Thermite burns so hot it will burn through asphalt and concrete and would reduce the pile of bodies to ash with nothing left to identify. The house was then blown up and burned down on top of them. Bomber and Skeleton took Sergio's car to the airport and they flew his plane back to Colombia so it would look like Sergio had left before the fire.

Sunday May 23 04:30

" _Load up" I ordered to everyone and they grabbed their equipment and guns and headed out the door. Basher chose to sit in the back of the pick-up truck, Jack-knife had used to ram the blown-up gate, RPG poised proudly on his shoulder_ _ready to take out the house. I chose to sit in the passenger seat of our beat up, 1995 red Ford Bronco_ _letting Tank drive back to the airport. Forty-five minutes later we parked the car in an apartment complex parking lot. Locked it up and started jogging back to the plane. Twenty minutes later everyone was arriving back at the plane and getting loaded up. At 05:45 we were leaving for good._

 _The pilots had taken to sleeping in the first class leather seats while we were gone, which was good, it meant they would be fresher for the next short leg of our trip._

I had Wolf do a brief physical check of Camilia to make sure she didn't have any severe injuries. He took her into the back kitchen area and was done ten minutes later.

He came out and set the girl down in a chair and came to me as I stood in the front of the plane and whispered. "You're not going to like it."

"Report."

"She has minor bruises on her legs and torso. Half are faded, look to be about two weeks old, half of them are fresh. Her back has thin white scars across it like he or one of his employees has taken a short whip or a switch to her and beat her with it. But none of that is a long term health problem."

"What is the long term problem?"

"She has a four inch scar across her lower abdomen. I don't have an ultrasound to confirm this but she says he took out her uterus so he couldn't get her pregnant. If he didn't, he certainly did some kind of surgery like getting her tubes tied or something."

It took everything I had not to put my fist through the wall. I wanted to go back and torture the sick sadistic _bastardo_ all over again.

Once we were in the air I encouraged everyone to sleep. I went through the flight attendant area and found small pillows, thin blue blankets and night masks. I finally got Camilia settled down in the backrow with a pillow and a blanket and she quickly curled up and went to sleep. I stacked the rest on the cart and once again wheeled it up to the front and parked it.

Before Hector went to sleep I gave him Rascal's video of Sergio and asked him to download it as we slept. I specifically asked him to edit the parts of him signing the paperwork and checks together in one short video. Because they did such a great mind job on him, he appears sitting in the bed fully dressed gladly taking the paperwork and signing it and the checks. I have no doubt he had no clue what he was actually signing and did not become suspicious and require Snark and Negro's special talents till they started asking about his business associates and their phone numbers.

Then I showed him the video of him blowing his head off and if there was any way to edit out the duct tape so you just see him blowing his own head off. He assured me with the short clip of me sticking it into his mouth pre-tape and a little editing magic he could make it so. Finally I gave him the information I had on The Saint and asked him to track the number and get me all he could find on the guy.

Then I paused and leaned very close to his ear. _"I know I am still working you hard my_ _friend. Just know there is going to be a very large multi-million dollar bonus for you."_

" _Thank you Boss, but you know I would do it for you anyway. And to make sure our Angelito and your baby girl is safe."_

" _Thank you Hector, for everything. Especially that dildo. Oh my god that dildo."_ A big smile split my face. _"That was amazing! It felt so good to stuff that up in him. I've never seen one that size. Where the hell do you get a dildo that large?"_

" _Special order. Only one manufacturer makes them that large. There are even sizes larger. I knew he was not a large man but figured that could be forced up there."_

" _It was perfect! The best surprise of the day!"_ I left him with a grin on his face.

I went into the bathroom, with my small clothing bag and stripped. I first washed my arms thoroughly with airliner soap to remove the blood and dirt. Then I soaped up a washcloth with Bvlgari from a travel sized bottle I carried and, starting with my face, washed down to my feet. I redressed in clean cargos and t-shirt and went to the front of the plane. Tank was now laid out in the first row of seats on the right and I took the first row of seats on the left.

I was debating calling off all the rest of this plan, or at least the killing off of all of his family. No one knows Sergio is dead and if I just assumed all of his businesses with all his money and appoint someone to run it, they could stop the cocaine business from the inside. But his family, his brother and brother-in-law specifically, would fight for control of the businesses and the brother-in-law would keep the cocaine business alive and well. Best to keep with the plan and destroy the cocaine fields and his entire family. No little children to inherit the kingdom and come after me in ten years for revenge.

I wasn't going to sleep until I had the plans for the day worked out and a safe hanger for the plane to park in. I divided everyone up into teams. Assigned everyone their targets, sorted all the paperwork by teams and wrote down times, coordinates and weapons on each. I broke down exactly how many weapons each team was to take. There was plenty for everyone as long as no one got greedy.

We landed just before 07:00 and I left the plane to scout the airport. I found the main office, lied about the plane make and tail number, and they didn't even walk outside to check. There wasn't a hanger big enough to fit the whole plane but I rented one for us to park in front of for the next two days. I sent the pilots to a nice hotel telling them if everything went well we would be leaving Monday night.

I finished working on my notes about 10:00. Then I tucked my folder away, laid my seat all the way back, crossed my arms and drifted to sleep on thoughts of Stephanie. When I think of her and dream of her all my old nightmares drift away.

At 13:00 my watch beeped me awake and I quietly made my way to the bathroom and washed my face. I went to wake Dago and Hangman. They were the Panama team and had a five-hour flight to get to the villa that was outside Puerto Pina just across the border. I gave them their orders, told them to get something to eat and to pack some drinks, sandwiches and snacks as they had ten hours of flying ahead of them.

Once they were ready I gave them the location of the airport Sergio usually lands in and walked them over to the ten-person plane that Sergio uses. Once they got it started they taxied over to our plane and got their bags, food, two LSATs and ammo, and got ready to leave. Their orders were to scout the property and verify the drone hit; that the property was destroyed. Then make their way through the property killing all guards or anyone else left alive and return back here tonight.

It was a three hour flight to both the West and East compounds. I wanted the men there two hours early to destroy the warehouses, houses and set the timers on the hellfires in the fields. I wanted everything burning about 02:00. By 15:00 most everyone was awake.

Camilia was still sleeping and I asked the _Tres Amigos_ to take care of her. To talk to her and see if they could find out where she was from. To see if she remembered her address or phone number or anything. The paper I had on her only gave her parents first names. I gave them some cash and sent Negro out to buy her some real clothes, books, movies, cards, toys, a tablet. I told Hector to run searches and see if he could locate her family. By 16:00 Negro was back with clothes and toys for her and she was just waking up. Thirty minutes later Hector had located her family only an hour away. The _Tres Amigos_ loaded her up and headed out to take her home to her family.

I gathered all the men up who were going to other locations in Colombia and gave each one a run down on what they were supposed to do. I assigned Skeleton to fly Frizz, Lover Boy and Starr to the Eastern compound just outside of Bucaramange. They had a total of five fields, six warehouses, one single house and the compound to be hit between 00:00 and 01:00. I got them loaded up in one of Sergio's smaller cargo planes with sandwiches, snacks, and armed for bear. Same orders to kill everyone they find on the compound. I wasn't expecting many because that compound was empty most of the time but there were probably a few guards that live there year round. The only rule I gave, use up all the ordinance you have, bring nothing but the LSATs back.

I assigned Bomber to fly 3 teams. Grenade, Basher, Mr. T., Hairy, and Snark to the Western compound just outside of Popayan. They had a total of seven fields, nine warehouses, four houses and the compound to be hit between 00:00 and 01:00. I got them loaded up in one of Sergio's medium cargo planes, again with plenty of food and drinks and armed to take down an army. Sergio's mother and grandmother lived on this compound so there were going to be more guards. Same orders: kill everyone they find on the compound, bring nothing back.

I assigned Irish to partner with Ice and fly to a small airport outside Medellin, in Central Colombia. They had a total of three fields and two warehouses. Irish wanted to fly one of the medium cargo planes, so I loaded them down with food and with some LSATs in case there were guards around the warehouses. They probably have the easiest job and part of what I was going to skip doing when I had only eight men. But since I had the manpower I wanted to be thorough. By 17:00 I had everyone loaded up and in the air and the _Tres Amigos_ were back.

They gave me the basic run down that her family was very poor. She was their oldest child. They were so happy to have her back but they were scared Senior Valentino is going to come back, punish them and take her away again. They said that her father works in one of the warehouses and fields that we are planning on blowing up. The men didn't like leaving her because they didn't feel like she would get an education and proper choices in her life. I got all of the family's contact information and promised them she would be taken care of.

The majority of the properties I was after were here to the South. I assigned three teams. Me and Tank, Eagle and Jack-knife, Wolf and Bullet to be at the compound at 21:00 for the fireworks display and to make sure no one was left alive. There were ten fields and fourteen warehouses down here but the real challenge was going to be the twelve houses because eight of them were within a half mile of each other.

To assist I had two more teams assigned to the South, Beaver and Rascal, then the trio Afable, Negro and Muerte. I passed out aerial views and pictures of all the properties. Once everyone had their paperwork, I began the directions.

" _We start at 21:00. Three teams at the compound, two teams starting in the fields and warehouses. Then at 00:00 we will meet up at the Esmerelda neighborhood to take out the eight houses. Three are on the same street. Those houses all have to go up at the same time so the residents aren't alerted that something is going on. Once those three go up we split and hit the last five within five minutes that way we can get out of the neighborhood before emergency personnel arrive. Then each team finishes up, most of you have at least one more house to take out after that. We should be done and headed back to the airplane no later than 01:00."_

" _No one at the compound lives. Once the four missiles hit, Wolf and Bullet go over the wall and take out everyone in the back. Eagle, Jack-knife, Tank and I will hit the front and sides and meet you in the back. No guards at the warehouses live. When you approach the warehouses, count the cars. If there are a bunch of cars you know there are workers inside. If there are lights on inside expect there are workers inside. Shoot the outside guards first. Put a fire bomb in the back of the building. Wait five minutes for it to spread. If more guards come out kill them. His guards are like his own little militia. Any that aren't killed will rise up to avenge his death and cause problems for anyone trying to run his companies in the future. Any questions?"_ No one responded.

" _We leave to get vehicles at 19:30. In the meantime raid what's left in the kitchen. There are more sandwiches, snacks and hot meals that cook in the special ovens."_

I've seen drone strikes before, but knowing this was mine and taking down an enemy to the people in my life, felt more fulfilling. Four missiles were a bit much. Two would have done it and three would have been thorough. Four just meant all that was left was scattered burning rubble. I had counted six men in the front yard before the missiles but only five after. Either way we went over the wall and quickly took them out. Three minutes later we had made our way to the back where there were now four dead men, climbed back over the walls and disappeared into the night.

Tank and I were assigned two additional warehouses, and one of the reasons I assigned these to us was because unlike all his other storage facilities these were in a busy industrial area. I figured we could burn them down and not set everything else on fire in the process. I was surprised they weren't guarded and before blowing them up we slipped inside.

Within the rust red warehouses were rows and rows of boxes of coffee beans. I guess at some point they had a great surplus or maybe there were companies that actually only buy his coffee without the special side of white powder.

"I guess we don't need to burn these down." I told Tank.

"I don't know I like my coffee beans roasted."

"Smart ass."

"If I was being really smart I would have brought a coffee maker instead of explosives."

"Grab a can, I've had good Colombian coffee before and it's worth it to get it straight from the fields. I can give it to Ella and she'll roast them and grind them for me."

"Ella has you spoiled. With her cooking and cleaning for you I don't know how you make it out in the field."

"I can still take care of myself and a contingent of men in the field. But to be honest, this last trip I've been craving her omelets. I don't know what she puts in them that make them taste so good." We walked back up the unlit street to our beat up tan Dodge truck. Me carrying two cans of coffee and Tank carrying one.

We stopped at a small hole in the wall cantina and got a late meal. We ordered beers but didn't drink them instead asking for a pitcher of water to go with our food. We took turns watching footage of the flying drones and reading the updating texts on the outcomes at several locations. They were on their way back from Panama. Whether his ex-wife couldn't stand extra guards, or because they were divorced and she was out of the country so he thought she didn't need them, there was only one lone guard outside the gates. They had walked the whole property and found no one else.

Irish and Ice in Central Colombia were done and flying back. Sending some spectacular pictures of the warehouses burning. Again only a few guards and no workers at any of their locations. West Colombia reported all the warehouses had been taken out. Workers in half of the nine warehouses. No innocents injured, all the fields ready to burn. Basher and Mr. T had gotten impatient and blown up their four assigned houses early. All three teams were now in position outside the compound waiting for the drone.

Both teams from Eastern Colombia were outside the compound waiting and were checking in. Skeleton and Frizz reported workers in all three of their warehouses. The fields were ready. Lover Boy and Starr reported no problems. They even sent a picture of their one house as it exploded. At 23:30 we left and went to meet up with the rest of our team to take out the houses.

All the houses in this neighborhood were on one acre lots making it very easy to destroy one without burning the whole neighborhood down. At 00:00 we were all in position and with a single signal five houses went up. Three on this street, two more three blocks over. Seconds later I dropped the rocket launcher in the open bed and was back inside the truck, Tank speeding on to the next target.

We had a third house to hit when we were through with this neighborhood and Tank fired two rockets into it. It was bigger, true, but we had brought the extra ordinance to get rid of it. Once he was done firing he got as close to the fire as he could stand and chucked the firing tube into it. It was my goal to have no weapons, except the crates of LSATs, on the plane when the night was over.

We made our way back to the airport, where many of the guys were standing around, the stairs to the plane having been retracted. I called the Captain and he immediately opened the 'door' and dropped them. The rest of the night was spent watching the drone drops remotely and getting reports in from each team. The Central Colombian team arrived first and gave me the photo evidence of their destructive exploits. The Panama team arrived a little after 03:00 and reported no further problems.

The East Colombian team arrived just before 04:00 and showed me the recordings of the drone drop that occurred at 00:27; reporting no guards found on the property. The Western Team arrived at 4:45 complaining that Basher and Mr. T took too long to come back from the drone drop that occurred at 00:43. Again they had video for me. By 05:15 everyone was settled back in seats sleeping and the plane was locked up tight. Before each man went to sleep I gave out eight assignments for guard duty for the early afternoon through dinner, that I would notify them of where and that if all went as expected we were leaving Colombia by 20:0o.

Monday May 24 08:00

My watch beeped at 08:00 and I got up with Tank. We retrieved the truck where we had left it in a local neighborhood, took my suitcases, all the black crates that the ordinance had been in and left. First we drove through an area where there was an outside farmer's market and found an older man that was selling clothing and sold him all the crates for a few colorful outfits and some pesos. Then Tank drove me to the best hotel in town, the GHL Grand Hotel Villavicencio, where I showered and changed into my Armani suit.

We were in Villavicencio, Colombia where Sergio's headquarters and many of his businesses were based. Hector had already found me two local attorneys. Convers Codazzi and Renaldo Gomez were well reputed to be the best business attorneys in town. At 09:30 I arrived at their office, showed them the paperwork and discussed what it takes to get it filed in court and how long it would take. Codazzi explained that they didn't need to be filed in court, they needed to be filed with the regional office of Colombia's business regulations and that he would do it today. That technically the transfer of business and power is effective as soon as it is filed, but it could take up to a week before it becomes finalized in the records.

I told them to do it and had them start working on new paperwork to transfer some parts of the businesses to other named persons. They said they would have them by lunch. I left and went back to the hotel where I started making business calls. I called the managers that were in charge of his coffee fields until I found the one that handled payroll. He had been riding around all morning looking at burnt up fields, manufacturing plants and warehouses and reported that all of them had been destroyed.

I started the rumor that Sergio had been forced to sell to me on Friday and in retribution had his men burn down all of the fields. I told him that this Friday when everyone was paid they were to receive six months severance pay since we were going to have to replant the fields and to figure out that total and give it to me. He did some rough numbers and told me 2.8 million dollars. I asked for the main bank account the money needed to be put into and put the responsibility to transfer the money down into all the smaller accounts on him and for all the checks to be cut by this Friday. I also offered him a bonus, to be paid to him when he contacted me back saying it was all done.

I sent Hector a text to transfer the money from the business account that had 25 million in it. I didn't want the poorest among Sergio's victims, the ones that work in his fields and cocaine plants to suffer from this hostile takeover.

I then called the top five men whose businesses would be affected by the changes I was making and made them a million dollar offer to meet me for lunch. Two of them lived here or near here but three of them had to fly in so I set up a late lunch at 14:00 in the presidential suite of the hotel.

After those arrangements were settled, I started calling the four cartels. I called Loz Zetas first, asking to speak to the main man in charge and when he wouldn't put him on I explained that Sergio was out of the picture. His fields had burned down and the warehouses were destroyed. He wanted to know when they would be producing again and I explained that at this time we had no plans to replant what we had been growing. I said I knew they were going to be losing money and didn't want them coming after me and asked how much would it take to buy them off.

Immediately he put Miguel Trevino Morales, the leader, on the phone. I thanked him for his time and explained that Sergio was gone, along with his whole family, and asked how much would he be losing this first year. I told him that I wanted to pay them for this inconvenience, their lost revenue and the problem of finding or growing a new supplier. He wanted 500 million dollars. But from the monthly totals I knew that they did about 12 to 15 million a month with him or 140 to 180 million a year. I explained that I was not wanting to cause problems but that Sergio did not have that much in his accounts and that he was working with 4 cartels and 5 other business men that all needed a slice of the pie. I offered him 200 million dollars to leave me alone and he agreed.

I immediately called Hector again. _"I'm sorry to ask so much of you. Thank you for handling all these millions of dollars, but now I have to pay off the other sharks in the water before someone hungrier comes along to eat me. How much total is in his business accounts?"_

" _Bones has been working all the little accounts. Let me look it up."_

Fifteen minutes later he called me back. _"Bones is almost done with all the little accounts. He has had a problem today with one bank where as he was accessing the accounts someone was going in and changing the passwords. He has been having to rehack them one at a time but so far has transferred 1 billion 352 million dollars into your business account."_

" _Thank you. Now I need you to transfer 200 million to the Los Zetas"_ and I gave him the information. I had laughed when Morales gave me the information but was an unregulated way to send and receive millions of dollars instantly and all they had to give me was an email address. I still had millions left and was willing to spend all of Sergio's money to keep these men off my back.

The next three phone calls went about the same. Antonio Cardinas Gulleo and Mario Cardinas Gulleo of the Gulf Cartel also accepted one hundred fifty million dollars and agreed to leave us alone. Servardo Gomez Moreno of The Knight's Templar was sold for seventy-five million dollars and he was getting a good deal because he didn't do as much business as the other two. Jose de Jesus Mendez Vargas of La Familia got twenty-five million. La Familia hadn't actually done any business with Sergio this past year but they had done big business in the past and I wanted to stay on everybody's good side. In less than an hour I had spent $450,000,000. Ignoring the fact that I had it to spend, it was a staggering sum.

While contemplating my next steps, I received a phone call from the hotel's front desk asking permission to allow two men up to my suite. I sent Tank down to check it out and he returned with my attorneys bringing me the paperwork they had drafted.

" _We pulled a list as you requested from the business offices for all one hundred and seventy-two businesses. We filed the generic form you had him sign that said he was selling you all his businesses, making you CEO of each and selling you all property owned by that business. Then we filed the specific forms for each of his seven businesses that he was CEO of."_ Senior Gomez told me.

" _There is a huge stack of paperwork here. The first folder are forms transferring the businesses that own things: his offices, one for each of his houses. planes, trucking hubs, separately the trucks and trailers, the fishing boats, the refrigerated trucks, his cargo ships and all the shipping containers and both mines. There is one form for all 25 fields and one for the 29 warehouses."_ Of course I didn't tell them they were all burned to the ground.

" _This second folder are the forms to dissolve all eleven middle management companies."_ I quickly signed them so they could get them filed today.

" _This third folder are the new joint ownership paperwork for the eight companies that actually ran the businesses, one for the local shipping company that managed the planes and trucks, the local fishing business, the international cargo shipping business, one for each of the mines, one for all of his coffee fields and warehouses, one for his company that buys and sells South American products, one that buys products for international trade."_ Senior Codazzi explained to me. I quickly looked through the stack. _"Who ever signs these will be joint owner with you for ten years at which time you promise to sell the businesses to them._

" _This is the stack of personal contracts you requested, written exactly as you stated. We did add the line 'at any time, now or in the future'."_ Senior Gomez explained.

" _Thank you gentlemen for all your hard work today. The retainer I paid you this morning is for one year of services and I expect to renew it every year for many years."_ I showed them out of the suite and Hector was waiting in the hallway for me.

I led him to the couch and he set his computer down and showed me a DVD. He popped it into his laptop and I saw it had seven videos on it.

" _The first video is of him signing all the paperwork."_ He explained as he flipped through them. _"The second video is of him telling you he's going to kill you and your family. The third is him telling you he wanted one hundred million dollars a year. The forth video is of you stuffing the dildo up his ass. This is only for your viewing pleasure and I must say to you,"_ he gave me a devilish smirk, _"Now that you know how satisfying it is to stuff a large cock up a man's hole, we must go out sometime and see if you still find it as pleasurable in the States."_ He grinned widely at me.

" _They say you never know till you try it. The only problem I have is that it wasn't my cock. It was yours and yes I found it immensely satisfying. My friend, I don't think you need my help to stuff your big cock in anyone's hole. But if you do, give me a call, I liked stuffing your big cock into his tiny hole."_ After staring at me for a second, he laughed at me. One thing I noted, Hector is such a serious and dangerous man but on this mission he has helped me every step of the way, making this go as smoothly and as pleasurably as possible.

" _Brother I owe you so much for this."_ I waved my hand at the machine _. "You have gone above and beyond for me this weekend."_ We did a complicated handshake and gave each other a head nod. He skipped to the next video.

" _This is Snark and Negro's whole session with him."_ He skipped again. _"This is his entire torture session from the time you came in and took over till he blew his head off – unedited."_ He skipped again. _"The last video is the edited video of him shooting himself. It is such a close up, don't show it on any big screens and really you don't want to show it with any other video."_

We watched the video of Sergio shooting himself. It opens with him already having the gun in his mouth. It runs for over two minutes, while you see him flinching in pain repeatedly and then BLAM he's dead.

" _Wow,"_ I told Hector. _"You did an amazing job getting the duct tape out of the video."_

" _It didn't take too much. I have a program that alters video. I cut out the part of his face with the tape on it and replaced it with the video of his face before the tape. If I hadn't had that I couldn't have done it. But if you watch it closely, the area around his mouth is blurry for a few frames where I spliced the new video in and when he blows his head off. So don't show this video repeatedly to anyone and not on a large screen. The blurring will be too obvious to anyone closely watching his mouth."_

" _Thanks Hector."_ I told him. _"Let me transfer them to my phone."_ I said stepping closer to his computer.

Hector jumped to his computer and bent over it. _"Let me change them to smaller files so you can easily play them on your phone."_ He said.

" _I just need two, the one of him signing the paperwork and him blowing his head off."_

" _The TV is relatively new. We can hook your Bluetooth up to it so you can play video's on the TV."_

" _Do it." I said and handed him my phone._

Five minutes later he closed his computer and stood upright. _"They are in your email."_

" _Hector I have Sergio's top business associates coming here for a lunch meeting. I'm going to need to transfer money to each of these men's accounts. Can you stay in the bedroom and come out when I need you?"_ I questioned.

" _Of course."_ He told me. He picked up his computer and I showed him to the bedroom of the suite.

" _Feel free to order room service. We are going to be eating lunch in here."_ I told him. I invited all my men to order room service and gave them the plan rundown for the afternoon.

When they were done eating I had six of my men stand as guards all up and down the hallway and let Tank and two more in the room for the meeting. I wanted a show of force and I wanted to have more muscle than anyone else would bring. It was 13:45 and I was ready.

To be continued….

A/N: Thank you all for your reviews! Hoped you enjoyed all the destruction as he burned Sergio to the ground. Please read and review.

As always big THANK YOU to my beta Sassysaint you are so my cheerleader and I appreciate it!

Second Big THANK YOU to my sister, Jonelle. Thank you for fixing all my many little mistakes.


	29. Chapter 29 Meeting of Business Partners

Chapter 29 The Meeting of Millionaires

A/N Ranger is still in Colombia in meetings so once again for ease of reading please assume everything in italics is spoken in Spanish.

Monday May 24 13:50

Estaban Suarez arrived first with three guards. I allowed all the guards inside. We would eat lunch first and then all the guards would be asked to wait outside. Rodrigo Rossi arrived next with only one guard and a very large shoulder holster under his jacket. Andres Cabrera arrived next with two guards. Thiago Pereyra arrived with no guards but looking like he had multiple weapons under his jacket. Fernando Jimenez arrived last with two guards.

All of these men had good Latino looks with dark brown hair and brown eyes and dark skin. All of these men were multi-millionaires. Andres and Thiago were both billionaires. They all make millions a year in legitimate businesses but most of them have illegal businesses on the side as well.

" _Please Gentlemen. Let's eat lunch and get to know each other."_ I offered once everyone arrived. I ushered everyone over to a long dining room table that was set for six. The leaf had been put in to make it longer and we were sat three on each side, lest any power hungry people sit at the head of the table and think they are better than anyone else here.

Estaban Suarez sat down and immediately demanded. _"I want to know why I am here. I flew a long way and canceled several meetings for this."_

" _Here Here. I second that motion."_ Rodrigo Rossi said.

" _Gentlemen I thank you for your time, patience and understanding. I don't mean to be mysterious but what we have to discuss is very serious and known to upset the digestion. I know you have all traveled far to be here on very short notice. Trust me it will be worth millions to you. So please let my secrets lie a little longer. All will be revealed in due time."_

Once we were all seated, two waiters that had been standing in the corner came with wine, water and menus. They took additional drink orders and put bowls of soup out for us to start on. The five men made some business talk while we waited. Ten minutes later the waiters returned pushing one cart. They cleared the soup away and served salad and bread with butter. Fifteen more minutes went by and they were pushing two carts this time. They cleared the table, refilled our drinks and set our meals in front of us.

We had a nice business lunch filled with small talk and I got to learn a little about each man personally. Thiago Pereyra was married with three children. He was in his mid-forties but had no grey hair or lines on his face. He just looked a little weathered and dignified. Fernando Jimenez was single, the only one in the bunch and the youngest, only twenty-eight years old and from the sound of it quite the partier. It is one reason he liked living in Bogota, the capitol city, so he can enjoy the night life.

Andres Cabrera was married with two kids. He would not give his age but looked to be in his mid-thirties. Rodrigo Rossi was forty-five and married for twenty years with six kids. Esteban Suarez was twenty-nine years old. Newly married and had one new baby boy that with a little coaxing, he showed pictures of.

After lunch I told them that we were doing private business and explained that the guards must now wait in the hall. I led them all to the living room of the suite and invited them to sit down. There was a liquor sideboard against the wall and I offered them all native Aguardiente. All but Jimenez took me up on a glass. When everyone was settled I put in the video of the prostitute.

" _This is a video that men hired by Sergio made and dropped to me. This is of a woman I once saw briefly but as you will see we are no longer together as they kidnap her out of another man's bed. But that didn't stop them. I'm going to play it on fast forward because it is long."_

I turned the TV on, pressed play and sped the DVD up as fast as it would go. Then I watched the men closely. None were upset by the beatings and I reminded myself that women were sometimes loved, worshiped and adored but they were still very much second class citizens here. The group rape caused a bit more of a reaction; Thiago sitting back further in his seat like he was trying to get away from it all and Rodrigo looking a bit ill.

When Mucktar pulled out his knife all but Fernando braced themselves for what was next I hit play so they could hear Mucktar's warning. When he got to the end I backed it up just a few seconds so I could translate it.

' _ **Instead of a team trying to get you, we are to take out your women. First your lover, next your daughter, then your mother and finally your four sisters and we can't forget Grandma Rosa, and Grandma Sanja. This next part is not what I would do. I would just kill all your women outright. But we were given specific orders and everything we do here tonight is videotaped for Sergio as well as for you. We were given the equipment and told exactly what to do and how to do it. So, we must go for a trip now and prepare your woman for her final performance.'**_

There were no visible reactions to the stabbing. When it showed Stephanie hanging seven stories up there were several gasps as this is not what they expected to see. I turned off the DVD and turned to address them.

" _I don't know about you, but I couldn't sit around while they kidnapped, tortured, raped and killed all the women in my family. We got that woman safely down from the building and I gathered all my family up and hid them. A few days later the men found us and a firefight ensued. All but one of the men were killed and I questioned that man thoroughly. He explained that they were all killers for hire. There was a man leading the team he called Boris that hired them and was directing their moves. Later Sergio himself said that he hired Santiago "The Saint" Martinez to go after my women."_

" _This is the conversation I had with Sergio when I came to Colombia to talk to him."_ I turned the TV on and to Bluetooth, then I pressed play on my phone and the TV played the audio recording.

" _ **Sergio, this is fun right? This is the exact kind of fun you imagined when you put hits out on all the women in my family."**_

" _ **Fuck you."**_

" _ **Exactly what did you think was going to happen when you did that? Was I just supposed to sit around and let your men kidnap and torture my mother, my daughter, every woman in my family and then me?"**_

" _ **Did you think I was just going to lay down and take it?"**_

" _ **I want to have an actual conversation with you. No fists, just words, can you do that?"**_

" _ **What will you give me to go away now that I have taken all this trouble to come see you personally?"**_

" _ **Nothing"**_

" _ **Will you call off the hits on the women in my family?"**_

" _ **No"**_

" _ **Are you going to stop trying to send men to kill me?"**_

" _ **I'll take that glare as a no."**_

" _ **Come on Sergio you're not giving me many reasons to spare your life and the lives of your family. I think that's a fair trade. Kill your family to save mine. Since I didn't actually start or want any of this."**_

" _ **Fuck you, you can't kill my family."**_

" _ **Why not? You put hits out on all the women in my family. Are you willing to remove those hits? Will you call the guy right now on the phone and call the whole thing off?"**_

" _ **Again I will take that 'go die' look as a No."**_

" _ **I'm trying to negotiate for my life and the lives of my women. They are priceless to me. I would spend ten times what I'm worth and go into debt for the rest of my life to save theirs. I would go into debt one hundred times what I'm worth to save my own. How much debt are you willing to go into to save your life and the lives of your children?"**_

" _ **Go to hell."**_

" _ **So your life and the lives of your family are not worth that much to you. How much are you willing to pay me to go away? What is your life and the lives of your children worth? You're worth billions. I would take three billion eight hundred million dollars. That's billion with a B. Pack up my men right now and go home."**_

" _ **Fuck you, I'm not giving you all my money."**_

" _ **What would it take? You're a rich man, worth billions. One of your shipping companies and your emerald mine?"**_

" _ **Hell no, I'm not giving you shit."**_

" _ **What about a discounted deal. Ten percent of what you are worth. I would take three hundred eighty million dollars and you remove the death threats from my family and me and you promise to leave us alone forever."**_

" _ **Nothing, I'm giving you nothing. If you kill me your life and the lives of all your women are forfeit. You do anything to me and this will never end for you."**_

" _ **So you have cost me millions of dollars, you want my life and the lives of all the women in my family and you want me to just leave you alone and let you kill us? What did I ever do to deserve this?"**_

" _ **You got in my way. You are a bug and I'm going to squash you and all your little buggy relatives. Now I am adding all the men in your family too."**_

" _ **So that's your great offer to me. You want me to leave you alone for free and lay down and let you kill me and all my relatives. For something I did as a soldier. For following orders that I would have been court marshalled for not following. You know if you had a problem with the American President and his orders you're out of luck, he's no longer in office."**_

" _ **My problem is you! You're such a smart ass. You and your men showed up and took the land away. You killed one of my best men. It's all your fault, it cost me over twenty five million dollars to buy up the land after that!"**_

" _ **That was years ago. You got the land, you got the mine, you've made millions why are you coming after me now?"**_

" _ **Boris"**_

" _ **The Boris you sent after me? The one in the States trying to kill my women?"**_

" _ **Boris Gonzalez."**_

" _ **What about Boris Gonzalez?"**_

" _ **We got drinking one night and he gave me twenty five million dollars to take you down. He showed me proof that you were after me and I knew I had to take you out. So I took his money and he insisted I had to torment you, make you bleed money, make you lose the things that are most important to you and then kill you."**_

" _ **That's why all the video recordings for proof."**_

" _ **Yes I have to have proof to show him."**_

" _ **What's his number I'll have a talk with him for you, get you out of that deal."**_

" _ **No there is no end. This is my life or yours and you have to die."**_

" _ **Sergio how about less than half of one percent of what you are worth? Fifteen million dollars. Your businesses make more than that a month. Fifteen million dollars and I take my men and go away."**_

" _ **No there's nothing you can do! Your life and the lives of all your women! You have to die! No matter what so do they! No matter what you do this will never end for you!"**_

I turned off the recording and put the phone back in my pocket.

"I was put between a rock and a hard place. If I did nothing my family would suffer and be killed. If I took action I risked you, his business partners, coming after me. It took me a week and a half and two more attempts on my women before I knew I had to act and take Sergio out. But before he died he signed all of his businesses over to me." I turned on the TV again and made sure it was on Bluetooth and hit play on my phone. Nothing happened for a few seconds. Suddenly the video appeared on the TV.

The video showed a fully dressed Sergio sitting on his bed with his back to the headboard. His legs fully extended, ankles crossed, with a stack of papers on them. Him looking at each paper, signing it and putting it on the bottom of the stack. The video lasts for three minutes as he stared longer at some sheets than others. Knowing what those pages said I don't know why he signed them because they clearly stated that he was selling me all of his businesses and naming me CEO. I'll have to ask Snark what he told him to get him to sign _._

" _Sergio is gone. I have control of all of his businesses but I don't want them, I'm not going to give up my life and move to South America to run his empire. Meanwhile all of you will be losing business if his shipping companies stop running. Senior Rossi, he ships your merchandise through all of South America on his trucks. Senior Pereyra, you ship yours overseas on his cargo ships. Senior Jimenez, he flew your products out of the country on his planes. Senior Suarez, his ships bring all the merchandise you buy into the country. Senior Cabrera, he buys yours and ships it all over the world"_

" _You are all good successful business men. But I don't want to be running businesses in South America. So if you are interested, I am giving away his income producing businesses, millions of dollars a year to you, if you'll run them fairly and keep most of his employees. Not the top brass as I expect you'll need to make them your own but the hundreds of lower level employees that still need a paycheck every week. In return all I ask is you give me two percent of the annual profits and treat your employees right."_

" _Why would you do that?" Pereyra asked._

" _As stated I don't want to move to Colombia to run his businesses." I told him._

" _But you could just hire some managers to run them for you and take all the profits." Cabrera said._

" _I just want to move on with my life and my business. If I have managers running it they will be coming to me with questions and problems and I don't want to be dealing with it. I don't know enough about his businesses to run them. I would have to stay down here for months getting familiar with them and getting them back on track after his departure."_

" _So why are you giving them to us?"_

" _Your businesses all depend on his being successful. You know about running profitable businesses in Colombia and the laws down here. You will all be losing money if his businesses get shut down. I care about the hundreds of workers that he employs. It would be a real loss to lose all those jobs because Sergio is gone. I am trying to do the right thing for the success of his businesses, for you, for the country, for his employees."_

" _What exactly is it you are offering us?" Suarez asked._

" _Let me explain the businesses in question. First, his cargo shipping business has twelve ships and ships products all over the US, Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa. It does three hundred to five hundred million dollars of business annually. Second, his airplanes ship all over Central and South America. I don't know how much business it does. Third, his in country shipping has five hubs with warehouses and unknown number of trucks and trailers. It is currently moving about two hundred fifty million dollars annually."_

" _Forth he has an emerald mine that I can tell you produces about twelve million annually in raw stones, but he shuffles a good number of them through a jeweler who makes a lot of jewelry. Sergio would then buy back the jewelry at a great discount and resell it all over the world. He doesn't own the jeweler but seems to have an agreement with them. This process makes over thirty million dollars a year."_

" _Fifth he has a small fishing and delivery company in northern Colombia that has thirty five small fishing boats and six refrigerated delivery trucks and agreements with a list of grocers and butchers that buy fresh fish daily. This is honestly his least profitable business, only making about half a million in profit a year. I won't take any profit sharing from this one but I want a ten year commitment that you'll keep that company going. There are a lot of jobs and livelihoods and right now it basically runs itself. Just put someone in charge of running it and it's free money every year."_

" _Sixth and seventh are two companies that just buy and sell products for the shipping companies to haul. One is a South American shipping company doing over thirty five million dollars a year, the other is an international shipping company doing over eighty million dollars a year. I am offering you 98% of the profits for each company for the next ten years. In ten years time I sell out to you for one dollar and the companies and all their assets will be yours."_

" _What about his cocaine business?"_ Jimenez asked.

" _All the fields, processing plants and warehouses have been burned to the ground and are not currently for sale. I haven't decided what to do with them."_

" _What about the uranium mine?"_ Jimenez asked again.

" _For now it too is closed."_ I told him. _"You seem to know a lot about his businesses."_

" _We were actually close friends and why I'm likely to accept your gift and let your women live but for doing this you ultimately have to die."_ Jimenez determined.

" _Let me play you a recording."_ I tell him. I took out my phone again, found the right file, pressed play, the TV played the audio file loud enough for everyone to hear.

" _ **Sergio, Sergio."**_

" _ **What would you pay me now to end all this?"**_

" _ **What would it take for you to call the hits off all my women and me?"**_

" _ **How much would it cost me for you to leave me and my family alone?"**_

" _ **One hundred million dollars."**_

" _ **For what?"**_

" _ **One hundred million dollars a year for the rest of your life and I'll remove the hits and leave you and your women alone."**_

" _What other options did I have? What would you do?"_

" _I would kill him of course but I would be smart and send a named killer after him and let him take the heat."_ Rossi said.

" _Like he has done with my women? Because killing him did not remove the threat, I still have a killer after them I have to go hunt down and remove."_ I told them.

" _I think the price he quoted was fair."_ Jimenez stated matter of factly.

" _It was a price he wasn't willing to pay."_ I explained.

" _And now he is dead."_ Pereyra acknowledged.

" _It could also hire a lot of assassins."_ Jimenez remarked.

" _Yes but that is a threat I live with in my line of work, hence the bodyguards."_ I told them. _"But he threatened my family, my women. I cannot allow a threat like that to exist when I can so easily remove it myself. Right now, after lunch, without weapons and without breaking a sweat."_

" _But alas I am not without weapons."_ Jimenez said pulling back his jacket.

" _If you threaten me I will take everything you own and kill you. Because the price on my head is high, all of your living family too. I don't play around with my life." I insisted._

Jimenez pulled out his gun and I laugh, it is a little .38 and it reminds me of Stephanie.

" _I've been shot at with much bigger guns and you have to know now if you shoot me you'll never make it past all nine of my security."_

" _But Senior Manoso you'll be dead, the gun will disappear, my cohorts and I take your paperwork and I buy their silence with one of these fine businesses. Your men can do nothing. Somebody has to finish Sergio's work."_

I'd had it with all the threats and I stalked towards him as he lifted the gun towards me. I knew I was wearing a thin bullet proof vest under my shirt, so unless he shot me in the head I would live but I could only take one shot before it would knock me out. At the very least it would knock the air out of me and I had to disarm him before he could do that. In less than a second I had crossed the room grabbing the gun before he could fire. I cold cocked him, knocking him out.

I took his gun and aimed it at the other men. Maybe this would never be over for me, maybe there would now always be a long line of rich men sending killers after me. And how would that be different than any other day in the last six years?

"Tank" I called and he immediately opened the door. Seeing me with a gun, he nodded his head to Eagle and Bullet and the three of them entered.

"Secure him." I told them and cuffs and flexicuffs appeared and Jimenez was trussed up on the floor, mouth stuffed full like a holiday turkey.

" _Who else thinks I need to die, because we have more handcuffs and flexicuffs?"_ Tank, Eagle and Bullet stood menacingly behind me.

I texted Hector that I needed a list of all living relatives for Fernando Jimenez.

" _Senior Manoso, I understand you had no choice in what you did with Sergio and came to meet with us out of courtesy and to make us even richer than we are. I see that you are a good and honorable man who is only trying to save his life and the lives of his family. You were given no choice of action but to do what you have done. I am willing to receive your gifts and promise not to ever come after you and yours. Even more so I'm willing to extend the protection of my name to you here in Colombia. It will stop most from coming after you."_ Thiago said.

" _Thank you Senior Pereyra. Now I must know where does everyone else stand?"_

Estaban Suarez spoke up, _"I am a man willing to kill my enemies."_ I bristled at his words and stood straighter ready to attack. _"But Senior Manoso you are not my enemy. You are a soldier whose life and the lives of your loved ones were threatened. I will gladly take a business or two and wish you a long peaceful life. I am newly married with a son that means the world to me and I don't wish harm to come to either of them over some stupid man's vendetta."_

" _Thank you, Senior Suarez"_ I told him. _"Senior Cabrera, your thoughts on all this?"_

" _Senior Manoso I personally don't wish you harm but Senior Valentino was a friend. I'm not sure how I feel about benefiting from a friend's untimely death."_ He told me.

" _Senior Cabrera, Senior Valentino knew I was a soldier. He knew that putting a threat against the women in my family would cause a response from me. You heard me, I tried offering him options. I personally expected him to buy me off, promise to leave my family alone and send me on my way. Then take a new hit out on my life and my family. That is what I was expecting. But he gave me no options to spare his life and now I have all of his businesses. You do not need to take one if it is only going to make you feel bad when you run it."_

" _No I don't mind taking a business. In fact, I would like his mine and jewelry business. It will go well with my businesses as I already ship all over the world."_ Senior Jimenez was waking up and starting to struggle against his bonds wiggling about on the floor.

" _Done. Senior Rossi your thoughts?"_

" _I think that Senior Valentino shipped my products all over Columbia and South America. I would like the trucking business."_

" _Of course."_ I told him. _"Senior Suarez you haven't mentioned what kind of business you would be interested in."_

" _Well I import goods from all over the world so I would like his South American company that buys and sell products created from all over this continent and if no one else objects his fishing company too. We eat a lot of fresh fish and it would be nice to get first choice straight off the boats."_

" _Senior Pereyra?"_

" _I would gladly take his cargo shipping company. It will be the most work but it makes the most money and most of my business is shipping goods out of Columbia so that will work well for me."_

" _Excellent, let me get the paperwork for each of you."_ I got the folder and passed out the appropriate paperwork for each business and they began to read over the contracts.

" _Gentlemen these contracts give you complete control of the business to run anyway you wish. Paying me two percent of the profits for the first ten years at which point in time I sell the businesses completely to you for one US dollar each. There is one main condition attached: you must treat your workers well. Everyone gets health insurance for their families, everyone gets set up with a six percent matching retirement fund, everyone gets a Christmas bonus at the end of the year and everyone receives profit sharing that is split between cash and their retirement funds. I'm giving you millions of dollars for free here and all I am really asking of you is to treat your employees right. When we pay our people well, they are better employees, and they make the whole country better. Can you each agree to that?"_

I received a few _Si's_ and head nods and everyone signed their paperwork _. "These will be filed tomorrow. I will send you detailed information about each business and you can each take over starting next week."_

I opened the last folder. _"Now this is the last form I'm going to ask you to sign. It says you hold me blameless in Sergio's death and will not come after me, my family, my businesses or my employees in anyway at any time, now or in the future. Nor will you hire or send a third party after me, my family, my employees or my businesses in any way, at any time, now or in the future. I understand the consequences of this action will result in losing all of my wealth, my businesses and full extermination of myself and all of my family."_ I passed the forms out and each man read them over, signed and returned them.

" _Now you all need the money. All of his accounts have been emptied. I am giving each of you fifty million dollars to keep the businesses running and pay all the open accounts that are due_."

" _Fifty million! How much did you take?"_ Suarez asked astonished.

" _Sergio had his businesses running like a pyramid scheme. He had the money running through over two hundred fifty different accounts. I just consolidated them all. I'm going to be honest. I already paid more than half of what was in his business accounts to the cartels. The coffee/cocaine business he had running has been shut down. Addicts everywhere are going to be cursing me but I've seen the problems of addiction. I can't pass that business on so I had to pay them off. I am willingly giving you gentlemen what is left so that you can successfully run his businesses."_

" _Why are you doing that? I would think you would just take all the money and run and not worry about us running his businesses."_ Pereyra queried.

" _I'm here to set you up to be successful. I need more friends, not enemies. It does you no good for me to give you businesses that have had all their funds stolen and can't function. Or that you have to pump millions of dollars into to make them profitable again. I will be honest. With the way he had the money spread out through all of his accounts I don't know how much came from each business. To be fair I am just dividing up what is left for each of you_ ". I walked out of the living room and got Hector from the bedroom, telling him quietly what I needed. He handed me a list of names of the Jimenez family.

" _This is one of my account managers. Please give him the account you would like the money to go into."_

" _I just need the name of the bank and the account number."_ Hector explained to them.

He took a piece of paper and passed it around the room. Each man wrote his account information on it and passed it around to the next man. When it got back to him, Hector took the piece of paper and went to sit at the dining room table with his computer.

Each man finished his drink while I told them what I knew about each business. Fifteen minutes later Hector came back over and announced that the money had been transferred. We shook hands and they each left ignoring their comrade still trussed up on the floor.

I cleared the glasses off of the coffee table to the wet bar. While there I refilled my glass, filled a glass for Fernando, and took two cigars from the box there. I set everything out on the coffee table then took the sheet of names and set it down in front of his empty chair, carefully placing his drink and a cigar on top of it. I removed his gag, undid the handcuffs, cut through the flexicuffs and hauled him back up into his chair. I sat down on the couch next to him with my drink, lit my cigar and set the lighter in front of him.

" _What is this?"_ he asked suspiciously.

" _It is a conversation."_ I told him and waited.

He rubbed his wrists reflexively, leaned back in his chair and glowered at me. I just sat there staring distantly at the wall, sipping my Aguardiente and smoking my cigar. If I got to the end of it without conversation from him, he was a dead man, but I wanted to reach him on a personal and professional level and limit the number of innocent deaths on my hands even if I was not the one to pull the trigger. So I sat and I smoked and finally he took a sip of his drink and looked at the paper sitting underneath it.

Seventy eight people were on that list, his entire immediate family that was alive in the country. He laid the paper down and picked up the cigar and lit it. Took a drag and blew smoke rings up to the ceiling.

" _So you're going to kill my whole family?"_ He asked picking up the Aguardiente.

" _Are you going to kill mine?"_

" _No, I never threatened your family."_

" _You said you were going to 'finish Sergio's work' and he was trying to kill my family and me. If that's not what you meant why say it?"_

" _I meant kill you."_

" _Why do you want to kill me? I am a gift horse bringing you businesses that are worth millions, that will make you millions and you want to kill me for it."_

" _You killed Sergio, you must die."_

" _Sergio not only signed his own death warrant, he pulled the trigger and blew off his own head."_

" _He was an honorable man, a religious devout man, he would never kill himself."_

" _Never the less he did and I have it all recorded. He asked for my gun, I put it in his hand and in his mouth and two and a half minutes later he blew his own head off."_

" _Show me."_ He demanded.

I pulled out my phone and played the video that lasted two minutes forty one seconds. I really watched Sergio's face and you can see the flash of excruciating pain cross his face a split second before he pulls the trigger. What I hadn't realized was that he had been slowly pulling the trigger back with every nail I had pumped into him so it was only a small amount he had to squeeze before the gun went off.

" _Damn. Why would he do such a thing and condemn his soul to eternal hell?"_

" _He was a beaten man. He had lost everything, given me everything, but still he wouldn't remove the hits on my family. He would rather die than see me and my family live."_ I let him chew on that for a few moments and took another sip of my drink. Then I took a big puff on the cigar.

" _I don't know why he hated me so much."_ I continued. _"He was worth billions, yet he threw it all away to come after me and my family. When what I did to him was nothing personal. I was under orders I had to follow. He sent his men to kill us and one of them was actually stupid enough to walk up and shoot one of my men in the chest, so of course we shot him and my man was wearing a vest. Busted him up and got him a one way ticket home but didn't kill him."_ I paused and took a deep breath.

" _Fernando, I like you. I respect you. I came here to show you respect and honor, to do the right thing. I have no beef with you or your family. Sergio made his own bed and wouldn't give it up. What would you do if someone demanded one hundred million a year for the rest of your life to let you and your loved ones live? Are you going to pay that person?"_

" _He would be a dead man."_

" _Do you see I didn't have a choice? I didn't come after Sergio except to protect my life and the lives of my family. Do you want to know the saddest thing?"_

" _What?"_

" _I think from all the final discussions I had with Sergio that he was no longer in his right mind. He was no longer in touch with reality and somebody came along knowing he was not all lucid and got him fired up to take me out. Even gave him millions of dollars to hire men to kidnap, torture and rape my women and got him twisted up in his head that somehow it was him or me and that I and my family had to be taken down for him to live."_

" _What?"_

" _He was no longer holding onto sanity with both hands on the steering wheel. He had some warped idea that for him to keep living on this earth he had to take me and my family out. I don't know why someone would do that to him or to me. He made threats years ago, at the time his man was killed, but he never followed through with any of them while I was still here in Colombia doing my government's work. A few years later he sent two different hit men after me and I took them both down and sent him a nice note to cease and desist and he seemed to let it go. I don't know why years later he would get it in his head that I mean anything to him, but this Boris guy gave him twenty five million dollars and got him convinced that it was him or me. It is why he finally killed himself, he knew he couldn't beat me and rather than die by my hand he chose to die by his own, thinking that somehow he was robbing me by killing himself."_

" _I don't understand. Somebody gave him twenty five million dollars to kill you before you took him out and he decided it was better to die by his own hand than let you kill him?"_ He questioned.

" _I'm telling you he wasn't firing on all cylinders and someone knew it, got him all twisted up in his head and gave him the money and the name of a man who would do it. I think he was set up but he was starting to lose it and didn't realize that someone was messing with his head. That I wasn't after him. That I had nothing against him."_ I explained.

" _There were some signs that he was having problems. I only know because we use to have lunch almost every week. Things were starting to slip. He would move or spend money and think someone stole it. He would make some crazy decision about his businesses. Like he decided they were going to double their cocaine production, without buying and planting more fields. That somehow if he made the people work harder they could magically produce more cocaine and he promised bigger shipments to be coming soon to the cartel. We talked candidly about our businesses. I knew all about his illegal stuff and he would ask me advice. But recently he wanted to sell off all of his businesses because it was too much hassle one week and buy more ships and expand the next. I was seeing signs of what you are saying."_

" _I'm saying that someone convinced him that he had to get rid of me and my family and gave him the money to do it. He was just not with it enough to see it wasn't reality. What do you know about this Boris Gonzales?"_ I asked.

" _I know he's not from here. He had been emailing Sergio for months before he finally came. He was sending Sergio all kinds of proof that you were after him and his family. When he came it was with the money and it was more than an agreement. Sergio signed paperwork promising to remove you from the face of this earth on his life, but promising to torture you first by hurting your women. It was a weird contract. He gave ten million of the money to Santiago with the instructions. He gave the other fifteen to someone else to follow through with the contract if The Saint should fail and he got killed."_

I watched the brief display of fear and panic that crossed his face and my gut told me the truth.

" _You, he gave the money and contract to you."_ I said it as a statement but he froze in his seat as if he expected me to attack him. Instead I got up and went to the door. I called his guards back in with Tank and Bullet. I took his gun back off the sideboard and gave it to him, then I sat back down. I was excited now. This was the man that held the key to protecting the women and ending the contract on their lives. If I handled this right it would mean the end of the problem for my family.

" _You are not a killer. This is a great responsibility you took on for this friend. You must have been close."_ I told him. He had relaxed having his men back in the room with him and especially having his gun back. He was a tall man maybe 6'2", and good looking with an average build. But it was nothing compared to my size and strength and I wanted him to feel as comfortable, as powerful and as safe as possible for the rest of this conversation.

He sat back in his chair. _"He was like a second father to me. Well like my business father. When my dad died and I took over his business we met. Once I had made several million we had lunch and he promised to show me how to make more. We have been having lunch most every Thursday for about three years. When I got over extended in my business he lent me money to get out of it and didn't charge me any interest when I paid him back. He was a friend to my father but he has been so much more to me."_

" _I'm very sorry that I had to take him from you but he left me no choice."_

" _Logically I understand that. But emotionally I am hurt, even though I knew it was going to happen and I warned him of it when he told me about the contract and the money. It was one reason I volunteered to fulfill the contract for him."_

" _Do you have the contract with you?"_ He tried to look blankly but I could see in his eyes he brought it. I just held out my hand to him and he lifted up his briefcase that I hadn't paid much attention to and got it out.

" _Half of it is in a language I don't speak and I don't think Sergio did either."_ I took the contract from him. It was in Spanish and Italian.

I scanned the three page contract. Basically, Sergio took the money and swore on his life and with all his money, if needed, to end me. But first to make me suffer by torturing and killing all my women. That was the first page that was in Spanish. The next two pages were in Italian, and my Italian is rusty and some of it was legalize but the gist was that I had mortally wounded the man known as Boris Gonzales and he was putting an endless or forever contract out on my life. To last until I 'and all my generations were defeated.'

Then it went on to list all my crimes and it was a twisted laundry list of my special forces record with a long list of authorized kills as innocent men I had killed, reporting hostages freed as people I had taken by force, listing men I helped catch who were behind bars as men I had framed, showing illegal weapons confiscated as weapons I had stolen and sold for profit. It also had a long list of innocent civilians I had knowingly killed on purpose. I recognized a group of names as the family of an African war lord who were not known to be on the property we were authorized to raid and were accidentally killed. I didn't recognize any of the other names.

" _I want to tell you that these accusations in here are false."_ Certain that he probably had the contract translated. _"May I keep this contract? Or get a copy?"_ I asked him. He waved his hand to me to keep it and I was certain it was a copy.

" _So now what do you suggest? I don't really want to kill you, but I can't leave and let you fulfill the contract and your promise to Sergio. You can't let me leave and if you do you are honor bound to hire more killers to go after me. But you have to know, that I won't just kill you. If you come after me, or send someone after me it is your whole family on the chopping block."_ I told him.

" _Well I've never killed anyone. I honestly thought I could shoot you in front of those men, be done with you and keep all the rest of the money for myself but I couldn't pull the trigger. I don't want you coming after me or my family. If I am honest with myself I know that Sergio was tricked. Tricked into thinking that you were coming for him. Tricked into signing this contract and sending people after you. After he did it he knew it meant his own death if The Saint didn't get to you soon enough. He told me he was worried about it. But I am honor bound to this contract and my promise to Sergio."_

" _What exactly did you promise him?"_

" _I promised him I would keep hiring people to take you out until you were dead, even if it cost me some of my own money."_

" _What did you promise on?"_

" _What?"_

" _Did you promise him with your life? Your firstborn child? On your father's grave? On the life of your mother? What did you promise him on?"_ I asked.

" _Nothing. I didn't swear to or promise on anything."_

" _And what are you going to say to your mama, that you got her killed as well as your brothers and sisters and their children, your nieces and nephews because of a promise you made to someone who was mentally unfit? Who was legally not all there? You understand that a crazy promise to a mentally unstable person is not a promise you have to keep?"_

" _Well…"_ He paused for a while staring while he took a drink and relit his cigar. I just waited him out smoking and drinking. I wanted to get through to him and get him to rescind his promise and the money he was given. I was worried if he kept the money at some point in the future he may decide he still owed Sergio and act. Finally he looked over at me.

" _I guess making a crazy promise to a man who was mentally losing it is not something I should hold to, given my life and the lives of my family are on the line."_

" _I will more than compensate you for this, but the first thing you have to do is give me the fifteen million."_

" _Twenty-five million actually."_

" _I thought ten million had been paid to Santiago."_

" _It has been promised to him upon completion of the hit but it hasn't been paid. I was given all the money to hold until it was confirmed."_

" _Ok give me the twenty five million and swear on your mother's life that you will break your promise to Sergio and no longer pursue me or my family."_ I demanded in a forceful tone.

" _Yeah sure."_

" _No you have to state it."_ I told him.

" _I promise,"_ he held up his right hand. " _I swear on my mother's life and my father's grave that I will no longer hold to my word to Sergio Valentino to fulfill this contract any longer. I will no longer pursue you or your family. I won't hire any more killers to go after you and I will call off the contract that was already set in motion."_ He looked at me _." Was that good enough?"_

" _Yes, now write me a check or I'll have my financial consultant come take the money out of your account."_

" _Have your financial consultant come. I don't have a checkbook for the account it is in."_

I texted Hector and he responded 'five'. Sure enough a few minutes later Hector came in the room and I waved him over to sit on the couch with me.

" _Fernando needs twenty-five million taken out of his account and put into my personal overseas account."_ I explained.

" _All I need is the bank name and your account information."_ Hector told him.

Fernando took out a yellow sticky note, wrote the name and a bunch of numbers and passed it to me. Moments later Hectors fingers were flying across the keyboard. I took another sip of my Aguardiente and thought this had been one of the most important drinks in my life.

Minutes later Hector wrote another long string of numbers down on the paper and passed it back. _"Confirmation number."_

" _Call it off."_ I said in my authoritarian scary voice and Fernando quaked in his shoes. He pulled out his phone and started talking in rapid fire Spanish.

" _This is Fernando Jimenez, canceling the hit ordered by Sergio Valentino. Code 9438724417."_

" _No. Sergio is dead and the hit has been canceled. All his accounts have been drained there is no more money left."_

" _No there is no more money."_ He covered the receiver and looked at me.

" _He says he was promised ten million no matter what for his time and efforts and he has been working on this assignment for months. He doesn't care how I pay but I have to pay him."_

" _Get his email for his account."_ He got another sticky note and wrote on it. I handed it to Hector. " _Ten million to this account."_ He nodded to me and moments later signaled that it was done.

" _The money has been sent."_ I told Fernando.

" _Ok the money has been sent to your account."_ He said over the phone.

" _He's verifying it."_ He told me as he waited on hold.

" _Sorry to be so much trouble. Glad to have this finally concluded. Nice doing business with-"_ He stopped talking and looked at me. _"He hung up but he verified he got the money. I'm taking that to mean he accepts the contract is called off."_

" _Very good. That concludes that business. Thank you Hector. Don't go far I will still need you."_ I politely dismissed him and he closed his computer and walked to the bedroom without looking back.

" _Now we must conclude the business we came here for. I have one business left that I saved for you. He has a company that buys and sells manufacturing goods internationally. It is a very profitable business. I know that part of the business was a cover for some of the countries he was illegally selling uranium to but it transacted over eighty million dollars worth of business last year. That's not all from the extra uranium. He was making a good profit off that. Are you interested?"_

He looked surprised that I would still offer him a business.

" _You were someone he obviously cared about and trusted, he would want you to have one of his businesses."_ I told him.

" _Sure… I guess, since there is no one else."_ He was hesitant.

" _You can show him how much you learned from him and apply what he taught you to build his own business."_

" _Okay"_ He sounded more enthusiastic.

I handed him the paperwork and explained about my requirements for the treatment of his employees. He agreed to it all and signed the contract. Then I handed him the last form.

" _You already verbally agreed to this but I like to have everything in writing."_ I told him as he read it over. He quickly signed it and passed it back. " _One more thing. I am paying you to fulfill this contract."_ I called Hector back into this room.

" _Send fifty million dollars to the same account you took the twenty-five million out of."_ I requested.

" _Fifty million dollars."_ Fernando sputtered. _"You don't owe me fifty million dollars."_

" _It is what I was willing to pay to get rid of the contract on my family. You did that for me. You went against what you promised Sergio for the good of your family and yourself, but you did it. You told me about it. You made the call. You signed the contract promising to never come after me again. The least I can do is pay what was promised for calling off the hit."_

He nodded to me, relit his cigar smoked for a moment and drank his drink.

Then I turned to him. _"Now, you get fifty million dollars for your business. What account do you want that in?"_

I could see remembrance dawning in his eyes as he remembered everyone else getting the money. He quickly wrote the account information on another post-it and I passed it to Hector.

We both finished our drinks while waiting for Hector to complete the transaction. Minutes later Hector signaled that the transfer was done.

I stood. _"I think we have completed our business Senior Jimenez. You will hear from me before next week with the details of the business. After that I look forward to your annual earnings report."_ I told him as I held out my hand. He shook it.

" _Thank you Senior Manoso. I figured you were just going to kill me but you have made me a much richer man. I truly thank you."_

I walked him to the door and he left without any more fanfare. I turned around and stalked back to the living room. The hit had been called off, my family was safe, but I had to find the man who presented himself as Boris Gonzalez. He got Sergio worked up enough to sign a contract and take twenty five million dollars to kill me.

Somebody wanted me dead. Somebody was willing to work very hard behind the scenes to create an elaborate setup to hide behind. Somebody with a lot of money. Somebody that knew my Special Forces history. Somebody who had researched my family. Somebody with a grudge. Somebody who did not want me to know who they are. It would not be over till I found them.

To be continued….

A/N: Thank you all for your reviews! This chapter finishes all his business with Sergio Valentino. What did you think? Did I cover everything? Please read and review.

As always big THANK YOU to my beta Sassysaint I really appreciate you!

Second Big THANK YOU to my sister, Jonelle. Thank you for fixing all my many little mistakes.


	30. Chapter 30 Back to Insanity

Chapter 30 Back to Insanity

Hilo, Hawai'i

 _I walked him to the door and he left without any more fanfare. I turned around and stalked back to the living room. The hit had been called off, my family was safe, but I had to find the man who presented himself as Boris Gonzalez. He got Sergio worked up enough to sign a contract and take twenty five million dollars to kill me._

 _Somebody wanted me dead. Somebody was willing to work very hard behind the scenes to create an elaborate setup to hide behind. Somebody with a lot of money. Somebody that knew my Special Forces history. Somebody who had researched my family. Somebody with a grudge. Somebody who did not want me to know who they are. It would not be over till I found them._

Monday May 24 16:10

I called all the men into the living room from the hallway.

"Great job men." I told them. "I am leaving my credit card with Bastimento Restaurante under the name Rodrico Sanchez. Go order a feast to eat on the plane to celebrate this successful mission. I have a stop to make but when I get back to the plane we are done and headed back to California."

Cheering went up around the room. I called the Bastimento Restaurante to give them my order and open the bill for all my men. Told them anyone that used my name I was paying for. I texted the men back at the plane to call in their orders and we would pick them up and bring them back to them. On the way I stopped at the attorney's office and dropped off the signed contracts. Thanked them for all their hard work and told them I would be in touch.

We drove under cloudy skys back to the plane and I hoped rainy weather wouldn't hold us up. Upon arriving the pilots were already there and the plane had been fueled. The men were celebrating. Many of them with beer or liquor that they'd picked up along the way. Soon enough we were headed back to California.

While on the flight I pulled Snark aside.

"I need to hire you to find a few people and to put your ear to the ground for me."

"Of course, what do you need?"

"I need you to find this guy that was going by Boris Gonzalez. We will be searching for him electronically and giving you all the information, we have. I need you to find the assassin known as Montoya. He has taken a hit out on my life and told me he wasn't going to come after me till I was old but I'm not willing to live with that hanging over my head any longer. I need you to find Antonio Esposito. He is Italian but last I knew he was on the run and wanted in several European countries and the US. His wife and kids got the house and all the money he had left. He has gotten hold of my service records that were posted on line and has been feeding my personal information to my enemies." He is also known by my family as Emilio. "We may find that Antonio is Boris Gonzalez. If he is, he has found money from somewhere and I want to take it all. I will pay you in advance for all of them."

"Do you want me to end them when I find them?"

"If Antonio is Boris yes I will pay you to end him. When you find Montoya I want to have a conversation with him. See if I can pay him more to take out the person who took the hit out on me. The last person is a ghost but I will pay you triple your usual fee to find him."

"Who do you need me to find."

"Christopher Untaki."

"The one that posts all the classified documents?"

"That would be the one. I need him to stop. Every time he reposts my history it gets people riled up to kill me. I'm tired of it. He leaves no electronic trail; do you think you can find him?"

"Actually I already found him once. He has eight years of my military records but there are several fucked up missions that he keeps reposting and I just need it stopped. When I found him, I alerted SOCOM and it took them three days to put together a sting and they missed him." Snark confided.

"This time we aren't alerting anyone. It is a retrieve and destroy. We get all of the records he has and we eliminate the threat. You can actually name your price on this one and I will pay it."

"Done. I will find him in the next three months. Guaranteed." Snark insisted.

"Thank you. I will have a team researching Boris and Antonio. I will give them your info and have them pass all leads on to you."

As Snark pulled out his phone to begin research I found Hector in the middle of the plane.

" _Hector, me gustaría invitarte a venir a Hawaii conmigo. La familia estará allí hasta el sábado. No es una vacación tan larga como te mereces, así que si quieres permanecer más tiempo, puedes tomar un vuelo comercial cuando lo desees."_ I asked. _(_ _Hector I would like to invite you to come to Hawaii with me. The family will be there till Sunday. It's not as long a vacation as you deserve so if you want to stay longer you can and take a commercial flight back whenever you want.)_

" _Si El Jefe. Iré a Hawai contigo." (Yes Boss._ _I'll come to Hawaii with you.)_

" _Bueno. Quiero hablar contigo más cuando estemos en el aire." (_ _Good. I want to talk to you more when we are in the air.)_

We landed at 22:15 and everyone got ready to depart.

"Thank you everyone for coming to babysit the celebrities this week. The party in Palmsdale was successful and it got over early. Remember to send me pictures of you in a suit if you haven't yet. You should expect payment by next week and everyone is getting a bonus. Hector and Tank will you stay?"

I wished everyone well and gave a lot of handshakes and backslaps. Everyone told me to call them if I'm hosting another party soon. I told them I would let them know. I stepped further away from the door as the heat from the day was wafting up into the cabin.

It took an hour to get a fuel truck out to fill us up and I talked to Tank while we waited.

"All reports from RangeMan are normal, nothing happened over the weekend. I'll book a flight as soon as I get back to LAX. Hopefully I can get a red eye tonight, otherwise it will be in the morning."

"Thanks for coming and bringing all the additional guns. The whole weekend turned out better than expected and having all the extra men really made it go smoother. There was less to blow up per person, but as a result we got it done faster and more efficiently."

"Anytime Ranger."

"Everyone on this trip is getting a small bonus but if you promise not to leave RangeMan you will be getting several million."

"How much did you take him for?"

"Between Hector and Bones they transferred over 1.3 billion from his business accounts. I paid the cartels four hundred fifty million. Then I paid the business partners another three hundred ten million. This trip is costing about one hundred fifty million. I should have about three hundred fifty million give or take a few."

Tank let out a low whistle.

"How much were you expecting?" Tank asked me.

"I was hoping to walk away with at least one hundred million. We still have a killer out there on the loose and this may stir other enemies of mine to try to go after my family or Stephanie. I wanted to have enough that I could make everyone disappear forever if I needed to or pay for permanent protection details. Whatever my family can live with."

"Stephanie as your fiancé is going to need a permanent protection detail."

"I know I just haven't discussed it with her yet. It may be a deal breaker for her, but I'm hoping we can come to a compromise."

"When are you coming back?"

"The cruise is finished on Saturday. I'm going to give my family the option to stay in Hawaii Saturday and come home Sunday."

"That sounds reasonable. When are you going to be back in the office?"

"Depends on Stephanie. I expect to be there Sunday night so if you need me call me. But I want to get her situated on seven and spend a couple of days with her getting her acclimated to the idea of being my wife and the security requirements it's going to entail."

"Good luck with that." He scoffed knowing it was going to be a battle.

"I know she will never be a lady of leisure, but I'm hoping with several million dollars she will spend more time doing things she enjoys and less time stressing over her job."

I gave him a man hug, a complicated handshake, and he departed the plane. I went to go sit down by Hector.

 _"¿Está funcionando el wifi del avión incluso cuando estamos sentados aquí?"_ I asked him. _(Is the plane's wifi working even when we are sitting here?)_ I asked him.

 _"No ahora. Toda la electrónica está apagada. Pero una vez que encienden la cabina, se enciende la conexión inalámbrica ". (Not right now. All the electronics are turned off. But once they fire up the cockpit the wireless comes on.)_

 _"Bien cuando lo haga, quiero pagarte". (_ _Good when it does I want to pay you.)_

 _"Tengo dinero, no es necesario que me pagues ahora"._ Hector told me. _(I have money, you don't need to pay me now.)_ Hector told me.

 _"Si, lo hago. Quiero pagarte antes de ir de vacaciones porque con el dinero que te doy, es posible que nunca vuelvas "._ ( _Yes I do. I want to pay you before you go on vacation because with the money I'm giving you, you may never come back.)_

 _"Oh, volveré. RangeMan es mi hogar". (_ _Oh I will come back. RangeMan is my home.)_

 _"Bueno, quiero hacerte una oferta especial. Cada hombre que vino en este viaje recibe una bonificación y Bones también por todo su trabajo. Me gustaría darle más pero sé que significa que probablemente se vaya de RangeMan y se tome unas vacaciones permanentes. Realmente me gustaría si todavía trabajas para mí al menos a tiempo parcial. Si todavía está dispuesto a trabajar para RangeMan, tengo una nueva posición que me gustaría que cumpliera "._ I explained _. (_ _Well I want to make a special offer to you. Every man that came on this trip is getting a bonus and Bones as well for all his work. I would like to give you more but I know it means you will probably leave RangeMan and take a permanent vacation. I would really like it if you would still work for me at least part-time. If you are still willing to work for RangeMan I have a new position I'd like you to fill.)_ I explained.

 __ _"No voy a dejar RangeMan",_ Hector replied indignantly. _"_ _Me salvaste la vida y te debo por brindarme un hogar seguro y un lugar para mis habilidades._ _"._ ( _I'm not leaving RangeMan.)_ Hector replied indignantly. _(You saved my life and I owe you for giving me a safe home and a place for my skills.)_

 _"Has estado a cargo de las instilaciones y quiero promocionar a Shawn para ese puesto. Quiero hacerte a cargo de todas las computadoras. Cuando comencé con RangeMan, contratamos a Granger Computers y Electronics para manejar todas nuestras necesidades y una vez al año revisan nuestros sistemas y actualizan todo. Pero cada vez que lo hacemos tenemos que ocultar los programas y todos nuestros archivos para que no puedan ver nada sensible. Ahora quiero que esté a cargo de nuestros sistemas informáticos para las cuatro ramas. Significaría que tendría que viajar al menos una vez al año para actualizar a todos. Pero te pagaré lo que quieras "._ I told him. _(_ _You have been in charge of instillations and I want to promote Shawn to that position. I want to make you in charge of all the computers. When I started RangeMan, we hired Granger Computers and Electronics to handle all our needs and once a year they come in check our systems and update everything. But every time we do that we have to hide the programs and all our files so they can't see anything sensitive. Now I want to make you in charge of our computer systems for all four branches. It would mean you would have to travel at least once a year to update everyone. But I will pay you whatever you want.)_ I told him.

 _"Solo pido que consiga mi propia oficina en cualquier piso menos cinco. Quiero tener un lugar seguro para mis cosas "._ Hector said. _(_ _I just ask that I get my own office on any floor but five. I want to have a secure place for my equipment.)_ Hector said.

 _"Claro, dime qué tan grande y te construiremos el tamaño que quieras con tu propio_ _habitación segura_ _, pero primero escúchame. Quiero pagarte treinta y dos millones de dólares. Dos millones son tu paga, treinta millones es tu bonificación por un trabajo bien hecho_ ". I said. _(_ _Sure, you tell me how big and we will build you whatever size you want with your own secure room, but first hear me out. I want to pay you thirty two million dollars. Two million is your pay, thirty million is your bonus for a job well done.)_ I said.

Hector was shocked. _"No tienes que pagarme tanto". (_ _You don't have to pay me that much.)_

" _Héctor, has hecho tanto por mí en este viaje. Todo lo que hiciste antes del viaje: la lista de negocios, la hoja de cálculo de las cuentas bancarias,"_ I looked seriously at him _. "Viniste cuando ni siquiera estabas invitado. Sabías que te necesitaría y viniste sin que te lo pidieran y trajiste todos tus juguetes. Te sentaste en su habitación mientras lo torturaban y me transfirieron la mayor parte de su dinero mientras miraba, trajiste ese enorme consolador."_ I couldn't help it a smile crossed my face. _(_ _Hector you've done so much for me on this trip. Everything you did before the trip: the list of businesses, the spread sheet of bank accounts,) I looked seriously at him. (You came when you weren't even invited. You knew I would need you and you came without being asked and brought all your toys. You sat in his bedroom while they tortured him and transferred most of his money to me while he watched, you brought that huge dildo.)_ I couldn't help it a smile crossed my face.

" _Pasaste dos días más trabajando con Bones para transferir todo el dinero de las doscientas setenta cuentas comerciales. Lo descargaste y editaste."_ I turned to him serious again. _"_ _El video de él haciendo trámites fue maravilloso para convencer a los hombres de que todo esto era legítimo. Rascal recibirá una gran bonificación por su trabajo en video. Pero el video de él mismo se salvó a mi familia. Eso convenció a Fernando de que Sergio se hizo cargo. La lista de familiares de Fernando lo ayudó a convencerlo de que hablaba en serio y de que se llevaría a toda su familia. Lo compiló tan rápido. Su ayuda fue crítica y después de pensarlo de una vez, le daré una bonificación de cincuenta millones de dólares. No se lo digas a nadie, ni siquiera a Tank, porque incluso él no se está acercando tanto"._ I told him. ( _You spent two more days working with Bones to transfer all of the money out of all two hundred seventy business accounts. You downloaded and edited the videos.) I turned to him serious again. (The video of him doing paperwork was wonderful in convincing the men this was all legitimate. Rascal will get a big bonus for his recording. But the video of him shooting himself saved my family. It convinced Fernando that Sergio did himself in. The list of Fernando's relatives helped convince him that I was serious and would take out his whole family. You compiled it so fast. Your help was critical and after thinking of it all at once I'm going to give you a fifty million dollar bonus. Don't tell anyone, not even Tank, because even he is not getting near that much.)_ I told him.

I knew that paying him that much meant he would probably quit and spend the rest of his life traveling the world. But he deserved it because most of what he did he did because he knew I would need the help. I didn't even have to ask.

 _"Gracias jefe."(_ _Thanks Boss.)_

 _"Cuando el avión vaya de nuevo y antes de aterrizar en Hawái, transfiérete el dinero. El crucero de la familia regresa a Honolulu el sábado. Voy a ofrecer ponerlos en hoteles y volar el domingo. Si quieres volar de regreso con nosotros "._ I offered. _(_ _When the plane is going again and before we land in Hawaii transfer yourself the money. The family's cruise gets back to Honolulu Saturday. I'm going to offer to put them up in hotels and fly back Sunday. If you want to fly back with us.)_ I offered.

 _"_ _Sí, volveré contigo. Disfruto volando en este agradable avión, mucho mejor que comercial. Además, todavía queda mucho por hacer en este viaje. Paga a todos Asegúrate de que a todos los trabajadores de Columbia se les pague. Obtenga toda la información sobre los negocios y comuníquese con los nuevos propietarios_ _"._ He said. _(_ _Yes I'll come back with you. I enjoy flying on this nice plane, much better than commercial. Plus, there is still a lot of clean up to do from this trip. Pay everyone. Make sure all the workers in Columbia got paid. Get all the information on the businesses and get it to the new owners.)_ He said.

 _"No tienes que preocuparte por eso. Voy a hacer que Bones trabaje en eso esta semana. Pero tienes el video descargado. Quiero darte las fotos que tengo y haces un breve video de un minuto que no muestra rostros para que nadie pueda ser identificado, pero da el mensaje claro de que si me buscas te quitaré todo y todos de ti "._ I requested. _(You don't have to worry about that. I'm going to have Bones work on that this week. But you have the video downloaded. I want to give you the pictures I have and you make a short one minute video that shows no faces so no one can be identified but gives the clear message that if you come after me I will take everything and everyone from you.)_ I requested.

 _"Yo puedo hacer eso. Incluso puedo comenzar con eso mientras estamos volando ". (_ _I can do that. I can even start on that while we are flying.)_

 _"Pero preferiría que manejases todos los pagos de este viaje cuando volvamos". (_ _But I would prefer if you would handle all the payments for this trip.)_

 _"¿Cuánto le estás pagando a todos?"(_ _How much are you paying everyone?)_

Hector pulled out his phone and tallied it up as I spoke. _"_ _Medio millón es la paga. Extra diez mil por los quince hombres que lo follaron. Bono de cinco millones de dólares para todos. Bonificación adicional de dos millones de dólares para Rascal para el video. Bono de quince millones de dólares por el_ _Tank "._ Hector pulled out his phone and tallied it up as I spoke. _(Half a million is the pay. Extra ten thousand for the fifteen men that fucked him. Five million dollar bonus for everyone. Extra two million dollar bonus to Rascal for the video. Fifteen million dollar bonus for Tank.)_

 _"Eso es ciento cuarenta y cuatro millones, ciento cincuenta mil."_ Hector showed me on his phone. ( _That's one hundred forty four million, one hundred fifty thousand.)_ Hector showed me on his phone.

 _"Cambia los diez mil a cien mil cada uno". (_ _Change the ten thousand to one hundred thousand each.)_

" _Eso es ciento cuarenta y cinco millones quinientos mil."_ He told me. _(_ _That's one hundred forty five million five hundred thousand.)_ He told me.

" _Ah, y cinco millones para Bones". (Oh and five million to Bones.)_

" _Ciento cincuenta millones, quinientos mil"._ _(One hundred fifty million, five hundred thousand.)_

 _"Eso es bueno. Me gusta ese número ",_ I told him. _"Tengo las cuentas de todos si quieres hacerlo mientras estamos volando". (That's good. I like that number.)_ I told him. _(I have everyone's accounts if you want to do it while we are flying.)_

 _"Claro, me alegro de acabar de una vez"._ He said. _(Sure, glad to get it over with.)_

Hector figured out how to get cable on the screens and we watched the news and part of a movie while he transferred money to everyone and I texted them telling them how much they were getting and why.

I texted Rascal and everyone that took pictures that they were greatly appreciated but to be clear there is to be no photo or video record of these missions in the future and next time I catch them doing it they will be destroyed.

I emailed Bones a big thank you for all the work he had done for this trip and for emptying all of Sergio's accounts. I asked him to get as much information on all of Sergio's businesses and email it to each business man that got that business. I sent the list of contact names, numbers and addresses for each of Sergio's businesses and the corresponding businessman's name and email address. I let him know his bonus amount and that it would be in his account soon.

We arrived in Hilo, Hawaii about 04:30 and I offered to put Hector up in a hotel or let him fly on to Honolulu with the plane. He chose to fly on and we said our goodbyes. I walked to a nearby hotel with my one bag, the cooler night air very warm compared to the temperatures we had left back in New Jersey.

Tuesday May 25 05:00

I had been on a mission high since leaving Colombia: a mix of adrenaline, stress and increased mental alertness so I knew I would have trouble sleeping. Regardless I had been short on sleep last night and when I got a hotel room near the port I laid down and relaxed my mind trying to get myself to sleep. I set my alarm for 07:00, which wasn't necessary as I never slept. I got up, showered, ate breakfast and was at the port at 07:45.

I stood in the morning sun beating down heating up the asphalt I was standing on. The problem was that though the ship was docked no one was allowed on or off the boat yet. I texted Mark that I was back as I stood there waiting.

I called Skylar. "My beautiful woman. I have my family here in Hilo, Hawai'i and I'm just wondering what there is to do on the island for the day?" I watched puffy white clouds drift aimlessly across the sky and appreciated the little bit of shade they offered as they passed in front of the sun. I knew later in the day the clouds would have a chance to congregate and rain down on the tropical paradise we were now in.

"Let me look." After a minute I could hear the clicking of a keyboard on the line and she came back on.

"Indoors or outdoors?" She asked me.

"Something creative and unique that they can't do anywhere else. Shopping is always loved by my sisters but we have twelve kids so something they can do that would be interesting."

"Well they have several unique beaches. Ones with white sand, green sand and black sand."

"I don't think they want to see more beach and we don't have any beach toys with us on the cruise."

"Indoors we have Mehana Brewing Company, Imiloa Astronomy Center, Lyman's Museum and Mission Home, the Pan'ewa Rainforest Zoo, it's really outdoors but listed with the indoor stuff, farmer's markets, and other local shopping."

"None of that sounds very interesting.

"Outdoors there are waterfalls – lots of waterfalls, a scenic drive up the coast, botanical gardens, biking, ATV tours, hot ponds, snorkeling, and helicopter rides. There are some overnight trips to see the waterfalls and stay in Volcano Village. Or you can pay to see them by helicopter."

"Don't book anything my dearest wonderful woman. I'll send a text to Marc to share with the family at breakfast and to call you to set things up?"

"I'll keep it pulled up on my computer and ready. I'll also keep looking to see if I can find anything else."

"Thank you most precious woman. I have to tell you, talking to you has ruined my woman."

"Ruined your woman how?"

"She heard me talking to you Monday to set up the flights off the island and make arrangements for activities in Los Angeles and now she expects me to talk to her the same doting way."

"That must be killing you." She teased.

"You know how long it took me and how hard it was to learn to speak to you like I do. She wants me to immediately talk to her the same sweet way."

"I have noticed you being more abrupt with me."

"Sorry my sweet princess it's just that I can't talk to you the way I normally do if anyone is around. It will ruin my reputation as a bad ass."

"I can see how that could be a problem, but really it will just add a new dimension that you can be a hard, mean, big, badass and a sweet caring guy in the same package."

"That's not how my men will see it."

"Maybe they should. Maybe it would be good for them to see you being a mean, badass on the streets but nice and respecting to your women."

"I'll think about it my most wonderful travel arranger." I sighed.

"Sure thing Ranger."

"Good bye." And I hung up. A shipmate was making his way down the gangplank to open the gate to allow people on and off the boat. I had my ID ready and quickly boarded.

Nightshift was just changing with dayshift who were taking position outside each door. I nodded to them and after being asked three times, announced to the group that the trip was a great success. Everything I left to do had been accomplished. Sergio had been dealt with and would no longer be a threat. I warned them that there may still be a killer or two out there trying to kidnap the women and to stay on their guard. Marc met me in the hallway.

"How'd it go?" He asked me.

"It was very successful. Now we just have to wait for the fallout."

"Are they going to know it was you?"

"There is nothing to point to me unless he told a lot of people I would be coming after him. In which case I show them the itinerary for the ship and prove that I have been on a week long cruise. Do you have pictures for me?"

"They will be in your email. Aren't you worried they will talk to your family?"

"Leave that to me. I have a backup plan for where I've been but it is easier if everyone just believes I've been here. I will let my family know in no uncertain terms that I have been here with them the whole weekend."

"So what are you doing today?"

"I'm having an adrenaline crash after coming back from the mission so if everything is going well I'm going to sleep for a few hours and meet up with you at lunch. I called Skylar for some things to do on the Big Island today and she sent me a list of options. I'm forwarding the list to you. Rental cars are at the airport. You take a shuttle there and then rent the cars. But I didn't make reservations for anything. Talk to my family, see what they want to do."

"Well as far as I know the deal for the day is shopping. There is a farmer's market near here as well as shops that are close for people coming off the cruise lines."

"Sorry to be missing that." I said sarcastically.

"Another quiet day. The men aren't interested but aren't complaining."

"I'll see you in a few hours." I said and entered our cabin.

Once inside I checked on the cell phone and internet equipment that I had set up before leaving. It was all still running perfectly. I found Stephanie still asleep so I quietly put down my luggage, having left both Sergio go bags behind on the plane. I stripped naked, climbed under the covers and pulled her into my arms but as soon as her sweats and tank top covered body was in my arms I reacted physically to her.

I nuzzle my nose into her neck and hair, double pleased with myself that I insisted on her bringing all her normal soaps so she still smells the same. But I am picking up the overtones of coconut on her skin as well; tropical citrus strawberry bash I thought to myself. She realized someone was holding her and tried to pull away from me but my arm tightened instinctively around her.

"Ranger!?" It is a half asleep exclamation, a question and a half 'let me the fuck go!' as she struggles to turn over in my arm.

I release her and lift myself up over her to look down on her sleepy form. She smiled up at me and I smiled down on her.

"You're back." She said a little breathlessly.

"I missed you." I tell her.

"Was the trip a success?"

"The trip was a rousing success. It turned out better than expected." I explained as I leaned down to kiss her. She turns her head away from me. Someday I will explain and get it through her head that morning breath doesn't bother me, but today I just say, "run go brush your teeth." And she rolls out of bed and heads for the bathroom.

She isn't a morning person but I hope she is awake enough and has missed me enough to be frisky this morning because _Dios_ I have missed her.

She comes back sunny and bouncing; obviously with me gone she has been getting enough sleep.

"Babe." I mean come here, I want you, I missed you, I need you.

She crawls over the covers to straddle me. And I am wanting her to move off so I can rip the covers away. She now leans over me and tenderly kisses me and I move my firm hand to the back of her crazy morning hair and deepen the passionate, I missed you, kiss. She is moving her sensual hips practically riding me over the layers of covers and I quickly find myself so rigidly hard I can't take it anymore. I get one arm under her curvaceous butt and I lift her up, breaking our desperate kiss and work the covers out from between us then I set her back down.

I smile at her, this is so much better. Now she starts erotically kissing me again and I tangle one hand into her wild curls and kiss her back passionately. I want her on top, I want to be inside her voluptuous sweetness but she has on too many clothes. I take her tank top off and pull her tender little breasts fervently into my mouth, I tease and tantalize until they are hard little peaks while she moans and then I start working down her shapely belly. With one hand I grab her gray sweats and pull them down over her butt and as far down as I can with her sitting on top of me.

"Off" I demanded pulling on them and she giggles and rolls off me. She shimmies out of them and crawls back over naked to straddle me once again.

I grab both sides of her curvy hips and pull her up above me so I am looking up at her promised land, then I pull her wholesomeness down to my hungry mouth and she tenses and squeals as I feast on her throbbing cleft and wet succulence. After a few moments she relaxes against my mouth, a few minutes more and she is passionately riding me moaning and groaning, trying to press herself down harder on top of my talented tongue. I pull her down an inch and tease her clit till she is squirming on top of me and when I bite, she shatters, crying out "Carlos" with her release.

I pull her sleek interior down on top of me and slide my hard throbbing cock deep inside her. She is still catching her breath and I am rocking up into her. She feels so hot, wet and skintight on top of me I want her desperately. I feel her toned thighs and hot core tightening around me making me hold back a gasp. Finally she starts to move too and it feels so amazingly perfect. It's been only three days away but after having her day and night for a week, my dick thinks it's been starving in a desert for a year.

I grab hold of her curved hips and pull her down hard on top of my steely need and I know I'm not going to last like this. God she feels so smooth, tight and dripping wet. The adrenalin that I have been living on these past days is still high and I just want to slam into her over and over to burn it all off within her blistering core. She is scorching hot, dick-hugging tight and slick like the perfect wet dream. She is building up, moving faster now, clutching at my chest as she groans, slides up my hard length and moans as I pull her back down shoving up into her frantic dimension of wantonness.

Up and down, up and down, it feels so incredible I could do this all day. I don't know how, I don't know why but this woman completes me in such an amazing way. I was poised between deep emotions and animalistic wildness. Somehow when I am inside her I feel whole and healed and like I have never been broken. I am flying up to the sky with her on top and I feel the fireworks getting ready to explode.

I slam her back down on top of me again and again and I am almost gritting my teeth holding back. Finally I feel her dewy heat tighten around me, sheathing me, squeezing me like a fist and she cries out arching her back, her hands clawing my pecs. I groan "Babe" as I let go and I fill her up, going over and over because I feel like I haven't cum in a month. She collapses down on top of me and I wrap my arms around her holding her close.

"Missed you." I tell her. "Love you." Need you all over again even though I just had you. I wanted to stay with her in bed all day and make love till neither of us could walk. She is catching her breath and my heart is racing like I have run ten miles.

She starts to pull away and my arms tighten around her. Pulling her back down onto me. I kiss her and kiss her, our tongues dancing, languidly stroking and lips tenderly tangling and I go half hard inside her all over again. I roll us so she is on her back and I start slowly thrusting my hips into her again, fully achingly hard almost instantly. I am shocked as I realize in that second that I am taking her bare back but I don't stop, I figure one more time isn't going to do any more damage than I've already done. I kiss her deeply starting to drive her wild with need again. My rhythmic hips move, beginning slow long deep thrusts with my aching manhood plumbing her depths with passion and I think what if I get her pregnant. In my mind's eye, I see a Stephanie round with my child and my heart leaps with joy.

I could see her expanding with my child. My child growing inside her and I start pumping into her in earnest and her arms go around my neck. I think, I have so much money now. I could always pay for protection for her and my child forever. I could see a blue eyed, curly haired, little girl calling me Papa. Or a little, tough as nails, boy giving Stephanie a hard time; taking after her, only wanting dessert and refusing to eat his vegetables.

A small smile tugs at my lips and I start thrusting my excruciatingly rock hard cock into her titillating and tantalizing heat, driving her higher till she is flushed and breathless. I know that even though I just came, I'm riding an adrenalin high and am not going to last long again. She slipped her hands down my back grabbing my buttocks and pulling me faster into her accommodating warmth. I began invading her at a slightly faster pace and her breathing started to change. I can always count on her body and her breathing to tell me what is going on with her. Not to mention her little breathy moans. She reaches up to wrap her arms around my shoulders and her legs around my waist and feverishly clung to me, desperate for more.

I am building her up delving into her intoxicating heat and as I start to thrust faster her legs tighten around me limiting my movement. I want to pin her down and fuck her into next week. I am so hard again I plunge into her heady need and stroke her with barely contained violence. Her breathing is getting faster and faster and then there it is the low guttural groan as I feel her start to spasm around me. I let loose, thrusting and thrusting, and cumming and cumming, over and over. I collapse down on top of her, only just keeping from crushing her. My breathing is ragged and my heart is racing. I realize I am a man in love holding his prized possession and my arms tighten instinctively around her and she gasps "Carlos."

I lift my weight up off her and smile down at her sex flushed face. I lean down to kiss her and kiss her losing myself in the kiss, letting out all of my frustration, all of my passion, all of my missing her, all of the anger, all of the stress, all of the need I feel for her.

Several minutes later I break away panting for air and she is the same.

"I take it you missed me." She says smiling up at me.

"Babe" I say. Telling her in no uncertain terms that missing her is a drop in the bucket for the amount of missing her I feel.

"I missed you too. But your family has been so nice to me. Your mother has practically adopted me and has been taking care of me. Making sure I am entertained and have someone to hang with and stuff to do and making sure I don't miss any meals. Like I'd get so depressed missing you that I wouldn't eat." She scoffed and tapped my side. "Okay, I need you to get up, I have to use the bathroom." She insisted.

I rolled away from her and stared at the ceiling a little half smile on my face waiting for her to realize. I can hear her peeing on the other side of the door and she would be so embarrassed if she knew but it is just normal to me. I look forward to knowing her well enough she doesn't feel the need to close the door between us.

"Carlos! We didn't!... You did!... Oh my god!" The door cracked open.

"Babe, it'll be okay."

"You knew? You didn't use a condom and you knew?" She questioned.

"Just got carried away, I didn't realize it till it happened. Then I did it again. I figured twice wasn't going to hurt any more than once." I explained myself.

"But what if I get pregnant?"

"Babe no matter what happens in your life I'm going to be right there beside you."

"But I don't want children." She insisted.

"I'm not looking to have children either. But if it happens, if we just made one, I'm going to love it and you, I will love you through nine months of pregnancy and we can hire a nanny and you can still work and no matter what it's all going to be okay." I rushed to reassure her.

"Okay," she finally answered not sounding too sure of the circumstances.

"Come on Babe, come back to bed." I encouraged.

"I've got to get up. I'm supposed to go with," her voice got real quiet, "Oshanna and your family to shore about 9:30. We're supposed to meet up for breakfast about 8:30." She told me.

"I don't know what your plans are but Babe do you mind if I stay in bed for a couple of hours? I have been sleeping on the plane but haven't slept more than a few hours at a time over the past couple of days."

"Nope," she leaned over and kissed me. "I'm going to take a shower. Do you want to come for breakfast?"

"No. I just need a few hours of sleep then I will be up for lunch. In fact don't tell anyone in my family I'm back."

"Okay." She replied as she went back into the bathroom. Several minutes later, I must have been dozing already, she came out wrapped in a towel. I watched her through slitted eyes, aware that this was the first time she was dressing in front of me, instead of carrying her clothes into the bathroom to change. It may only be because the bathroom is tiny and you can barely move in there but I liked her feeling comfortable and confident enough with our relationship to dress in front of me, more importantly to be naked in front of me. I lay there dozing till she left and finally I crashed.

My ringing phone brought me out of a deep sleep and I wondered briefly why it wasn't on vibrate.

"Talk" I ordered when I saw it was Marc and it was only 9:50.

"We're under heavy gunfire. Send armed men from the ship." He demanded.

Over the phone I could hear screaming and crying over the sound of machine gun fire and I panicked.

To be continued….

A/N: Thank you all for your reviews! Another day in the Hawaiian sun didn't turn out so sunny. Another cliffie, sorry I couldn't help myself. Please read and review. I love all your reviews they mean so much! I want to add throdes9 you were spot on and Baileygirl12 Thanks so much! You inspired me!

As always big THANK YOU to my beta Sassysaint, Thanks for all your support!

Second Big THANK YOU to my sister, Jonelle. Thank you for fixing all my many little mistakes.


	31. Chapter 31 Saving Them Again

Chapter 31 Saving them Again

Tuesday May 25 09:50

 _My ringing phone brought me out of a deep sleep and I wondered briefly why it wasn't on vibrate._

" _Talk" I ordered when I saw it was Marc and it was only 9:50._

" _We're under heavy gunfire. Send armed men from the ship." He demanded._

 _Over the phone I could hear screaming and crying over the sound of machine gun fire and I panicked._

"Where are you?" I was already up and pulling on my recently discarded clothes.

"A few blocks away, on the corner of Nahale and Pua Ave." I could hear Oshanna yelling that they were all going to die over the rapid staccato of a machine gun in the background. "There is somebody in the third floor window shooting at us. We are pinned down behind parked cars, but there are only three of them and we can't get further up the street away from the gunfire." I had my boots on, three guns and I was moving out the door. Zip and Zero were standing guard in the hallway.

"Get dressed, live ammo, they are taking heavy fire and we have to get to them. They only got a few blocks away." I told them as I went running off the ship texting the night crew 'G _et up and armed and report to Nahale and Pua Ave. Group taking live fire._ '

I call an Uber on my phone as I held my ID to get checked out to leave the ship, knowing there had been several waiting by the port for people getting off the ship. I ran down the gangplank feeling the sun beat down on me urging me on. As soon as I was assigned a driver, I found the car and wrenched the white door open to the dodge minivan as Zip, Zero and Ryan were running down the gangplank. All of us loaded into the car and the very polite driver said he couldn't take us all. I opened my wallet, dumped a hundred dollar bill into his lap and said "Drive."

I directed him to take a back alleyway between two buildings for several blocks and come out on the other side of the gunfire. I watched the maps app on my phone and told him to stop half a block away. We could hear the rapid gunfire in the distance, sounding like a war zone in the middle of the city. The report of the gun echoing off the buildings around us, made it hard to determine which direction it was coming from and I once again checked the maps app.

"Zip come with me. Zero and Ryan drive in the car to the other side. Box him in." I ordered.

As I made my way up the street I could see the large group of almost thirty people hidden behind three bullet ridden vehicles. One was a blue four door sedan but fortunately two were large SUVs. I couldn't see the shooter, just the tip of the gun barrel pointing out of the pink trimmed window on the white office building.

We ran across the street to be under the gunman and were hauling ass towards the gunfire, guns drawn. I saw Lester and Ram cross the street in a crouched run. I heard a bunch of shots and yelling and another shot and all gunfire ceased.

We entered the glass doors of the building moments behind them and raced up the stairs. We ran down the hall trying doorknobs to find Lester in a tax office holding a gun on Santiago "The Saint" Martinez. I was guessing he had run out of men to do the dirty work for him and with Sergio dead it had just become a quick kill mission. Santiago was sitting in a wheeled black office chair with plastic arms by the open window. His right arm shot and bleeding, hanging limply at his side, his leg bleeding from another shot and the floor pooling with blood around his right foot. Ram collected his weapons including a rocket launcher that was leaned precariously next to him against the wall.

"You were paid ten million dollars for your time and the hits were canceled." I said as I confronted him.

"The ten million was to fulfill the last part of the contract that said if Sergio was killed, I was to kill as many women as I could and then you."

"You should have taken the money and run. You signed your death warrant the minute you came after my family, but if you had run I wouldn't have chased you." I explained.

"I always fulfill my contracts." He insisted.

"Why? It was free money that you could have taken and no one would have been the wiser."

"I have my honor to uphold. I couldn't take the money and not kill the targets especially since I knew your men would not be armed."

"How did you know my men wouldn't be armed?"

"I knew Hawaii was a permit only carry state and if you were coming here you would be applying for permits for your men."

"So you tried to track approved permits?' I questioned.

"No, I called every sheriff's office on every island multiple times to complain about men in black walking around armed. I got assurance back from the island of Hawai'i that they knew it would be a problem Tuesday and Wednesday this week. They guaranteed me that would send men to take care of it and stop your men from leaving the port armed. That's how I knew you would be here and that you wouldn't be armed."

"How did you even know we were in Hawai'i?"

"I watched the cruise ship in Alaska and there was no large group of women and kids surrounded by men in black. I backtracked to LA and started trying to find out where your plane went. When you left Florida you went west, so I took a chance you went west again. I started calling around up and down the coast and all the islands of Hawaii to find a large group with a lot of men in black."

"So how did you find us?"

"I hit gold with a Honolulu airport employee who saw the plane and the large group getting ushered onto hotel busses late Friday night."

"But we weren't at the hotel."

"I figured you would hide your women somewhere on one of the other islands. That's when I started calling the sheriff's departments and found out you would be here Tuesday and Wednesday. At that point I knew you had put them on a cruise ship and I researched all the cruises that left Honolulu on Saturday. There were several so I couldn't narrow down which ship you were on but I knew your men would be here Tuesday and Wednesday so I planned to get you then. Really a few phone calls and some good guessing is all it took."

"Why are you here shooting at them out the window?"

"I suspected since the police said you were at the port that you were on a cruise ship I just didn't know which one. This is the main road in and out of the port. Getting off, getting on or driving by from this location I would see you and be able to take you out."

"Why were you shooting at the women when I was nowhere around?" I wondered.

"I knew you would show up. I shot over their heads to get them running, knowing they would call you and you would show up."

"That was your first mistake. You had to know if I showed up I would be armed."

"It is a risk I had to take. I was certain that I would see you come running up the street and then I was going to blow up the whole group in front of your eyes with the rocket launcher. But I didn't see you coming up the road by car or on foot. You killed Sergio on Sunday so I had assumed you would be back by now."

"We drove in a car in the alley behind the buildings most of the way here. Then stopped half a block from here and ran under cover of the buildings."

"And I missed you, too busy watching these two yahoo's cross the street. My problem was the way I had my gun propped up I was aiming above the cars and when they dipped down below my line of fire I couldn't correct fast enough."

"You were a fool to think my men were not going to come attack. Weapons or not."

"I had my 9 mil ready for them, but the wooden door took the bullet I shot at them and then they were shooting at me, by the time I turned around and re-aimed he had hit me in my arm and I couldn't hold it up to shoot anymore."

"How many men do you have with you?" I demanded.

He didn't answer but the look to the ground he gave looked embarrassed like he had gotten in a rush and hadn't hired any more men.

"How many more men are going to come after my women?" I asked again.

"Ten," He said hesitantly. "There are a bunch more men hired to finish the job." He bluffed.

"Where are all these men if you are here all alone. Who is making sure they do their job?" I questioned.

"They are all over the island and all over the world. They will come when you least expect it."

"I know you are bluffing. It's your last hurrah to make me worry but it won't work. I know if you had hired any guys they would be here shooting at the women not you." I insisted.

"It's true I like to hire men to do the dirty work. But this time I needed men to get done what I couldn't do."

"What couldn't you do?"

"Finish the contract and take you out." He was sounding weaker now.

"Well now I am going to finish you." I said as I drug him out of his chair.

"Hold him down." I ordered and I pressed my boot down in the middle of his chest while he tried to fight.

Zip grabbed his left arm, Ram grabbed his right. Santiago struggled, kicking out at nothing as I put most of my weight on his chest hoping we would have enough time to kill him and make it look natural. He kept struggling and I was glad as it would burn up his oxygen quicker. After a minute he went limp as several more of my men arrived to check out the situation. I could hear the sirens coming our way.

"Keep the police out of here. Keep them checking out the family and the scene." I told them. They quickly disappeared out the door.

Another minute went by and my men had let go and were now standing and watching. I couldn't put my full weight on him as a cracked sternum and ribs would be a dead giveaway that his death was not natural. Finally I took my foot off his chest. I searched his pockets and came up with a hotel key card, a fake ID, matching credit card and cell phone.

"Help me get him back in the chair." I directed.

I grabbed him under his right arm and Zip grabbed under his left arm and hoisted him up, dragging him back to the chair. Ram grabbed the chair to hold it still and we none too carefully sat him up, leaning his back against the backrest putting both arms in his lap. The body began leaning forward and I grabbed his hips pulling them away from the back causing his shoulders to rest heavily against the back of the chair. I rolled the chair so that his foot was back in the pool of blood it had started in. Finally situated we laid out his guns, a nine-millimeter, two Russian AEK-999 machine guns with extra mags, and the rocket launcher on a nearby desk.

I looked over at Lester who had blood running down his arm.

"You were shot?" I questioned as I got closer to see the hole in his shirt. I lifted his sleeve to find a gouge in his shoulder.

"Flesh wound, it's just bleeding." He said quickly. Then he looked at it. "Maybe it took a chunk out. Nothing a few stitches won't fix."

"Report" I said as I went to the bathroom that was in the back of the office and got a hand full of paper towels and handed them to him. He began mopping up the blood running down his arm and applying pressure to his wound. I grabbed another stack and a bottle of Lysol bleach spray. Lester followed and we talked, as Ram and I cleaned the blood off the green and white linoleum floor where we had held him down.

"We were ambushed by five police officers as soon as we got off the boat this morning. They threatened to arrest us for weapons violations. Everyone had a stun gun, several of us Marc and me included had our Glocks. We argued that we couldn't protect without weapons and they said that an armed police officer would escort us around for the day. Well there was five of them and Marc agreed. Everyone got back on the boat and we undressed."

"No one had any weapons?" I interrupted getting the last of the blood and walking back to the bathroom to flush the paper towels down the toilet.

"We still had our batons and knives."

"Continue."

"We headed out. We had seven targets, eleven family members and sixteen men but when we got off the boat there was only one armed officer. The other four had left. Marc argued that wasn't enough and talked to the police chief who said that's all he could spare. He gave Marc some names of men he could privately hire and Marc called several. He decided we would head out and the other protection would catch up to us in the next hour. Honestly he wanted to drag everyone back on the boat but Oshanna was whining and giving him grief and Stephanie joined in that we would be okay for an hour shopping with sixteen men."

"Marc gave in to whining women?" I clarified.

"Well Steph was pretty clear that she had posted about us getting on a cruise ship in Alaska and nobody was looking for us here in Hawaii."

"Nobody but the killer." I breathed in frustration.

"We came down this main boulevard. It is really the main road leading away from the docks. The women wanted to walk around and see the sights and shop so we were walking when machine gunfire started. I don't think he was expecting us to hide so fast. As far as I saw no one was hit. We plastered the women against the cars and covered them with our bodies. Marc called you and we kept waiting for Officer Kohana to do something, but he just froze up and Bobby had to grab him and drag him down behind a car so he didn't get shot. I got fed up. I took his gun right out of his hand. Ram was ready on the other side. We both took off across the road at the same time hoping he couldn't take us both out. We made it across safely and ran up the stairs. We knew he was in the forth window over but we weren't sure which office that would be so we listened at the door and heard the gun fire coming from this office. We kicked the door in and then slammed it back closed so his first shot hit the door. Then we both charged in, me shooting as soon as we cracked the door open again. I shot him in the arm so he couldn't shoot any more, the leg so he couldn't get up and just for the fun of it the foot. Ram was collecting his weapons, then you showed up."

"Stay here with the body." I told him. "I'm going to see what is going on out there. I'll send Bobby up to check your arm."

As I went down the stairs several cops were coming up and I turned around and followed them back to the little tropical office. I looked around trying to see what they were seeing. I saw the three desks, the peach and green décor and the plants everywhere. There were leafy green plants and pretty, multi-colored flowery displays hanging from the ceiling and sitting on the desks. On top of the large potted palms that were eight feet high.

"What happened up here?" Officer Bradley, the first officer through the door, asked.

"This guy was shooting at the group outside through the window. Two of us made it across the street and ambushed him. He was shot three times, one in the arm, one in the leg, one in the foot. When I got here he was sitting in the chair talking but then he clutched his chest and slumped down in the chair and hasn't moved since." I concisely explained. Not making it obvious that I was not here when it happened.

"You didn't give him CPR?" Officer Mauwa asked, concerned.

"He was shooting people and still had a gun when we came in. We took all his weapons once he was no longer moving and put them on the desk over there." I pointed.

"Where did you get the gun?" Officer Bradley asked Lester.

"It is Officer Kohana's gun. He was just sitting, holding it and wouldn't shoot back so I borrowed it and came after the gunman." Lester clarified.

"He's under arrest." A new younger officer that just came through the door demanded. "He stole my gun and discharged it in public." He insisted and the other two officers grabbed Lester and put him in cuffs.

"He is the hero that faced down the madman with the machine gun and you want to arrest him for it?" I questioned, shocked that they would be so bold.

"He snatched my gun right out of my hand. He needs to go to jail. All of your men had been told they were not authorized to have weapons and he took my weapon." Officer Kohana insisted, his voice raising in volume as he spoke.

"What were you doing when he took your gun? Were you racing across the street to face the gunman? Were you returning fire to protect the women? Were you calling on your radio for back-up?"

"I was holding my gun getting ready to shoot the gunman. I'm not on duty today so I didn't have my radio on me." He said defensively.

"And you have done this often? Fired your gun in the line of duty? Shot at people that were shooting at you?"

"No I've never had to discharge my gun in the line of duty till today."

"Oh so you were shooting at the gunman?" I pursued.

"No I never shot my gun."

"Let me understand this clearly." Giving him my 'don't fuck with me' face and he looked scared. "You were hiding behind the cars, holding your gun, not taking any action to protect the women and you want to press charges against the man who raced across the street under heavy fire and stopped the armed gunman?"

"He stole my gun out of my hand." He insisted turning red. At that declaration two officers began shuffling Lester out of the room.

"You made him leave his gun behind and you were not stopping the gunman, what did you expect my men to do?" I contended.

"I expected him to wait until backup arrived."

"You didn't call any backup." I pointed out.

"No but certainly other people heard the gunfire and called the police."

"Yet when I got here several minutes later no police had arrived."

"He can't take my gun and shoot another civilian with it." He insisted.

"First of all, a man with two assault rifles and a rocket launcher, shooting at innocent people on a public street cannot be called a civilian. Secondly, you can't expect my trained men, ex-Army Rangers to sit around and wait while under heavy fire. They are going to do something before the guy got a lucky shot in and took someone out. Stay here with the dead body." I told him as I walked out the door.

When I got outside, Lester had already been loaded up in the back of a car and I knew I needed help to fight his case. I looked around and was pleased that Marc had all the women around the corner sitting or standing along the sidewalk surrounded by twenty six of my men, who were now mostly armed. Third shift had showed up with multiple weapons and shared them with the unarmed men. Now there were four police officers surrounding my men menacingly and another four were roping off the area.

Marc came over to me. "Report." I said.

"They won't let the women leave. They are insisting that they need to interview each one but they won't start with all the armed men around. They want all our men to go back to the ship and undress." Marc told me.

"Who is here, who came on today's outing?" I asked unable to see through the crowd of men.

"Stephanie, Julie, Rachel, Leyla, Becky, Maggie, your mother, father, grandma Sanja, Oshanna and Julio." He listed.

"Call an Uber and have ten more men call Ubers. Take all the women back to the ship. They can interview them on the ship after they have interviewed the sixteen men who were onsite during the altercation."

I left Marc and waded through the crowd to the women who were loitering along the brick wall. Stephanie was standing there talking to Oshanna who was crying, Julio, who looked upset and Mama, who looked angry. I took Stephanie into my arms and molded her to me. Part of me had been aching to see her since I arrived on scene, to know for certain that she was whole and undamaged, but another part of me needed to be distant and in control to kill that maniac and deal rationally with the police.

"Babe"

"Took you long enough to get here." She said shaking in my arms.

"I pulled up when Lester and Ram crossed the street. I've just been dealing with the shooter and the police. The guys are calling Ubers. Are you okay enough to go back to the ship?'

"Yeah, shaken but dealing." She stated. I held her away from myself and looked her over carefully for any scrapes, cuts or unknown wounds. Seeing her whole and undamaged I grasped her tightly in my arms again.

"I was so worried when I heard the gunfire over the phone. I'm glad the guys were on their game and you are all safe."

"Yeah, they pinned us to the cars and blocked us in with their bodies. I felt like a squashed pancake. But I'm thankful. They did their jobs well and were willing to take a bullet for any of us."

I was proud of my men. It's when they can handle things in an unsuspected crisis, as all my men are trained to do, that you know the training works.

A few minutes later the first of the Ubers started pulling up and I walked Stephanie, Tiger and Ram over and loaded them in the car. The police officers just watched for a moment until I walked Julie and Rachel to an Uber with Junior and Eddie. I was having to pay each driver extra, but I had unexpectantly left Trenton with the thousands of dollars I had taken out to bribe the man captured, when he returned for the gun, outside my parent's home in Newark. I was finally having some good use for all that cash.

One of the officer's stepped forward, "I'm sorry sir the women can't leave."

I ignored him till the Uber was pulling away. "Did they commit a crime?" I asked him.

"No"

"Are they under arrest?" I pushed.

"No"

"Then they can leave." I assured him as I got Mama, Papa, Abuela Sanja and Vince loaded up and leaving. He disappeared around the corner and I got Leyla, Becky, Maggie and Hal loaded up. The car was just pulling away when Detective Finau came over.

"I'm sorry but these women have not been interviewed, they can't leave yet." He announced.

"Detective these women have been shot at and traumatized this morning. They are in shock and still in danger. They need to return to the safety of the ship. You've had over thirty minutes to interview them and instead your officers are standing around giving my men a hard time."

"Well your men are illegally carrying weapons."

"My men are protecting women who have been attacked by armed men four times in the last two weeks. Women whose lives are in imminent danger and who we are working hard to keep alive. Keeping them exposed, sitting on a sidewalk endlessly while no one talks to them, is not keeping them safe. You can interview all sixteen of my men that were here and then if you need more information about the incident we will discuss you talking to some of the women."

They already had everyone's names, why they hadn't interviewed them while they kept them standing there was a mystery to me. I got Oshanna, Julio and Sport in the next Uber and sent my night men to take Ubers back to the ship.

I called aside Erik, Ian and Tony. Gave them the ID, credit card and key card I pulled from the body and sent them to the hotel to get what information they could. I sent the rest of my men back to the ship to continue guarding the women. I took the last Uber to the airport, rented myself a black SUV and called Skylar. I cranked up the A/C as the heat of the day was becoming sweltering in my black shirt and cargo's. I had dressed fast not remembering that we were back in Hawai'i where the temperatures were in the mid-80's.

"My bountiful, beauteous woman I need something that is far off your radar but you are the best person to help me immediately with this request."

"Just name it Ranger. If I can do it, know that I will."

"I need the name of the best defense attorney here in Hilo, Hawai'i, please. The very best."

"You got yourself arrested?"

"Santos got arrested."

"What? Why?"

"A group of the women went shopping today. They just walked off the ship and three blocks later they sustained heavy machine gunfire. The long story is that we requested permits for my men to carry guns while on the island and the chief, instead of granting them, sent men to the docks to make sure my men were not carrying. They ditched all their weapons onboard. The only one armed was one pissant officer who froze and did nothing when the shooting started. Santos grabbed the gun out of his hand, crossed the street under heavy fire and took the gunman out. I'm not sure what the actual charges are going to be but they were saying felony charges for stealing a cop's weapon and illegally discharging a firearm in public."

"Under those circumstances you should be able to get the charges dropped."

"That's why I need the best. I want him released asap and I want to bring a lawsuit against the police department here for intentionally endangering my women."

"Ok I have a partnership. Lua Palu and Kealoha Defense Attorneys LLP. I'm texting you their number. They are the best in the area."

"Thanks most wonderous one. You are a lifesaver as always."

"Anything for you, Ranger. Goodbye."

"Goodbye"

I called the law office and offered the receptionist ten thousand dollars to talk to one of the law partners immediately. She responded by asking for my credit card. As soon as she had charged it she transferred me.

"Akamu Lua Palu, how can I help you?"

"I need to hire your law firm today. I need to see if we can't get some ridiculous charges dropped and I need to bring a couple of lawsuits against the Chief of Police, the police department and the officer in charge." I explained the situation to him and that my man had been taken to the hospital but was probably at the jail by now. He said he would meet me at the local station once he got the preliminary paperwork drawn up.

On my way there Ian called and said they got into Santiago's hotel room. They didn't find anything that showed he was working with anyone else. They had gone through what little paperwork was there and only found his private plane information to Hawaii. The chartered plane last night from Oahu to the big island of Hawai'i. Pictures of me, Stephanie and Julie, his laptop and another handgun with ammunition.

He reported that the clerk said he checked in alone at 19:00 last night and paid for only one night. They had bagged his computer and luggage and were bringing it all back to the ship.

Once at the police station they refused to let me see Lester only allowing his attorney to talk to him. They were holding him and refusing to charge him with anything. Akamu suspected that since we were on a cruise ship they wanted to hold him overnight without charging him and make him miss the ship leaving. I insisted on seeing the captain.

After arguing with the desk clerk who finally waved me onto his receptionist I finally got a work-in appointment. Half an hour later I was let into Captain Kwock's office. I put on my most menacing face and addressed him with as much respect as I could muster.

"I would like to know the meaning of putting eleven of my family's lives in danger as well as sixteen of my men?"

"If you are talking about not allowing armed civilians to run amuck in my city there is a standard fourteen day waiting period for all gun licenses, but since none of your men live here they would be denied anyway."

"We only asked for special permission to carry the two days we were on your island not long term carry permits. It should have been an easy decision. Instead you sent five men to the docks to harass my highly trained and decorated men, stopping them from doing their jobs of protecting the women."

"We received multiple complaints from the public about men in black carrying weapons on the island."

"We didn't arrive on your island till eight o'clock this morning. What you received were multiple feeler calls from the killer who was trying to locate my family using my men as an excuse and your office fell into his trap letting him know you were aware of the problem. Your office let a trained killer play you."

"We would never give out information like that." He insisted.

"Not you personally but after several calls someone in your office told him you were sending men to the port to take care of it. It is how he knew what island we were on and that we would be coming from the port."

"Not from my office."

"Yes from your office. When I asked the killer how he knew where we were he said he complained about men in black walking around armed and your office said they knew it was going to be a problem Tuesday and Wednesday. So your office not only confirmed our location but the dates we would be here as well. You gave him the information to find us and told him where to set up his guns to catch us leaving the port."

"I will have to have someone review the call logs. All incoming calls like that would have been recorded."

"Please do, and after you are done explaining the leaks in your office you can explain why you wouldn't allow my men to remain armed but didn't provide any protection yourself."

"I sent an armed man with your group."

"You sent an unprepared man, who has never been in a firefight and never discharged his weapon in the line of duty. When someone started shooting at them, he froze up and my men had to drag his ass to safety. While my experienced, battle hardened ex-Ranger had to grab his weapon, cross the road under heavy gunfire and take out the man that was shooting. Your officer didn't even have a radio on him and when the shooting started he was so scared he didn't even pull out his phone and call 911."

"He is a highly qualified officer."

"Based on what?"

"He passes his annual testing with higher than average results every year."

"How does that help protect anyone when in real life he freezes up and puts everyone in danger and my man had to grab his gun and take down the bad guy?"

"Your man is being held on possible multiple felony charges."

"Well you either drop the charges now, charge him and have him out of here in an hour, or I am going to bring so many lawsuits against you, the officer you sent and this department that I will bury you in fees and paperwork."

"Are you threatening me?"

"I don't threaten. I take action." I told him. "Each one of my family's lives is worth over a million dollars and each one of my highly trained men is worth half a million. That is a nineteen million dollar lawsuit against this department to start. I will sue you personally for ten million dollars for reckless endangerment and I will sue Officer Kohana till he has nothing left for failing to act and for bringing charges against my man who had the balls to take action and remove the gunman."

"Mr. Manoso, when we have all the evidence we will bring charges and not a minute before."

"What evidence don't you have that you are waiting on?"

"The officers are still waiting to interview all the women."

"I had sixteen highly trained men onsite whose eyewitness reports will be much more accurate than the women. You do not need to traumatize and brutalize, shell-shocked women by putting them through reliving the attack. They don't need to be stressed out more or endure any more than they have already endured today. Besides, you had over half an hour at the incident site to interview them and your men stood around doing nothing. Half an hour and eight men and they barely had crime scene tape up."

Finally the attorney spoke up. "Sir I respect the law and the officers that uphold it, but your motto is protect and serve and your office did neither today. Your office was the source of the leaks that let the gunman know not only which island the Manoso family was on but where on the island they would be. You could have easily given a pass for his men to remain armed and save yourself the trouble of worrying about protecting the women but you didn't for no good reasons. His men are all highly skilled and decorated men who are more experienced with firearms than most of your force but you chose to ignore that. If they had been armed the incident this morning would have been over in minutes instead of lasting over 10 minutes endangering his family and men as well as any public that happened to be in the area."

"You could have sent a proper amount of guards for the women," Lau Pula continued, "since you sent five officers down to the pier to harass his men, but you didn't. Your men could have locked down the scene and interviewed all sixteen men and eleven family members onsite, but they didn't. You could have easily charged Lester Santos by now so he could go before a judge, but you haven't. No jury is going to find him guilty of any of the false charges you say you are going to charge him with. They are going to want to pin a medal on him for bravery. Gun or no gun it takes very large kahunas to run through gunfire to take down the enemy and he got shot doing it. No jury is going to side with the police when you have obviously failed to protect and serve these women, when you knew in advance of their arrival and you knew the danger to them. That is sixteen counts of police harassment and eleven counts of negligence."

He walked forward and started piling paperwork on the chief's desk. "This is the lawsuit against the department for harassment and negligence. This is the lawsuit against you personally for reckless endangerment and negligence. This is the lawsuit against Officer Kohana for reckless endangerment, negligence and false charges. Mr. Manoso is a very rich man who will gladly keep you and this office buried in lawsuits for years. It is my recommendation that you release Mr. Santos, forget bringing charges against him and allow Mr. Manoso's men to remain armed the rest of the time they are protecting the women on this island."

"I can't just let armed civilians loose to run around my island, drink, get into bar fights and shoot the citizens I am supposed to be protecting."

"You have all of their service records in front of you. They are all highly decorated and experienced men. Half of them were special forces. All of them have seen real battle, and been in real firefights, compared to most of your men who have not. They are much better trained than your men. We can reach a compromise. Anytime they are guarding the women they can be armed. Anytime they are just roaming the island alone or out having a few drinks they won't carry weapons with them."

The captains face puckered like he had just been sucking on a very bitter lemon and finally he heaved out a big breath.

"Fine, they can be armed when they are protecting the women and I will talk to Officer Kohana about dropping the charges."

"Thank you" I said as I dipped my head in deference to him and turned to leave.

"Honestly Mr. Manoso, I would like to ban your women from my island. Being in as much danger as they are, you should have them locked away, not out in public where other people can get hurt."

"The men targeting the women are professional killers. They won't hurt random people unless you pay them to. They are very careful with their bullets."

"Did you know the man that attacked them today?"

"His name is Santiago Martinez also known as "The Saint". He is a killer for hire that was paid ten million dollars to take out as many women as he could and then kill me. I don't know why he would resort to shooting at them on the street except that we have had them so well guarded he hasn't been able to get to them."

"Well the ME said he died of a stressed induced heart attack from all the bullet wounds he sustained."

"It's a shame because now we can't question him and find out what other men he has hired or has with him here on the island." I told him.

"Wait out front while I talk to Officer Kohana and get Mr. Santos released." He told us as he ushered us out of his office.

Ten minutes later a red-faced Officer Kohana stormed out of the Chief's office and headed to the back. Fifteen minutes later Lester appeared, tucking his phone and wallet back into his pockets.

"Thanks Boss." He told me.

"Thank your attorney Akamu Lua Palu"

He turned to the attorney and stuck out his hand. "Lester Santos. Nice to meet you and thank you for getting me released."

"It was my pleasure." Akamu said as they shook hands.

"Let's get out of here." Lester said. "I've spent as much time in a police station as I can handle today."

"Thank you." I said to Akamu and shook hands with him. "Send me any remaining bill for your work today."

"You already paid me in full for this. Ten thousand dollars for a few hours of my time is more than worth it."

"I have one more favor to ask. When the police report is complete, contact the owners of the vehicles that were shot up and tell them you will have checks for them. I want them to get the checks and sign over any liability for the damage done. I don't want any future lawsuits from this."

"Of course I will contact you with their information."

We walked out of the police station into the steamy heat and it felt like we had just stepped into the jungles of Columbia. Fortunately a cooling breeze blew and helped swick away the sweat that was forming on us in just the few feet we had to walk to get to the car. Lester and I got into my SUV.

"I'm sorry cuz," he started, "but I need to go offline for a couple of hours and have a couple of drinks. I expect you have all the women back onboard the ship."

"Yes everyone is back on the ship."

"Can Zip or Zero handle Oshanna for a few hours? Because if I try to watch her after all of this I'm liable to strangle her."

"Sure. Sport can handle her on the ship, take the rest of the day off. Lester, you did good today. Thank you."

"Anytime. I don't get to run through a shower of bullets very often anymore." He smirked.

When we got back to the ship Marc updated me that all the adults caught in the shooting were in the Spa, getting massages, facials and relaxing in the sauna. I thought that was good thinking to destress and unwind after a morning like that. All the kids ten and under were in the kids rooms with their parents, the teens had massages and were now playing in the teen room.

I didn't know it for a fact, but my gut was telling me that with Sergio and Santiago dead, the threat was over and the women were now safe.

To be continued….

A/N: For anyone that doesn't know "getting dressed" and "undressed" in this chapter refers to the men getting armed. Thank you all for your reviews you don't know how much they mean to me! Posting one day early because I had a pleading review from a guest reviewer to do so and I was able to get it ready sooner. Please read and review.

As always big THANK YOU to my beta Sassysaint, Thanks for all your support!

Second Big THANK YOU to my sister, Jonelle. Thank you for fixing all my many little mistakes.


	32. Chapter 32 Hot Fires in Hawaii

Chapter 32 Nighttime Fires in the Volcanoes of Hawaii

 _When we got back to the ship Marc updated me that all the adults caught in the shooting were in the Spa, getting massages, facials and relaxing in the sauna. All the kids ten and under were in the kid rooms with their parents, the teens had massages and were now playing in the teen room._

 _I didn't know it for a fact, but my gut was telling me that with Sergio and Santiago dead, the threat was over and the women were now safe._

Tuesday May 25, cont.

I thanked Marc for taking care of everything while I was gone and sent a text to all my men that I was now back and all updates should start coming to me as well. I went to the teen room where Julie, Becky, and Maggie were playing games and talked to them, making sure they were doing okay after this morning's shooting.

I waited outside the spa with my men, desperately wanting to see that the family was alright and doing better after the attack. Finally my mama, papa and Abuelas Sanja and Rosa appeared and said they were going back to their rooms to change. Then Leyla and Rachel appeared followed by Oshanna, Stephanie and Julio.

I took Stephanie in my arms and held her to me. She was still warm and wet from the Sauna and still in her bathing suit, wrapped in a towel and carrying her clothes.

"How are you doing Babe?" I asked as I walked with her.

"Much better. They have great masseuses here and the aromatherapy sauna was relaxing. But I am hungry now, we haven't eaten since breakfast."

I followed her back to the room and after looking at the dining choices and texting with everyone we headed to a buffet on the fifth deck level. I was surprised to find the whole group from the spa there eating. They were discussing what there was to do for the rest of the afternoon. I got up to address the crowd.

"I understand that what happened this morning was a little shocking and scary." I started.

"Being shot at was more than scary." Oshanna demanded.

"It may have been traumatizing and I am very sorry for that. But the gunman is dead and he was working alone. Sergio is no longer a threat. As of right now there is no one else to come after you. As bad as it was this morning from now on you should be safe."

"Does that mean you are removing your guards?" Mama asked.

"We are going to keep using the guards for the rest of this trip. Just as a safety precaution and to make sure there are not any surprises but once we get back the guards will be gone." I explained.

"Are you sure that is wise?" Rachel asked.

"I'm sure that it will be okay. If it makes you feel better I will keep guards on you as long as you want. It won't matter to me but I feel that the threat has been removed and as of now you are all safe."

"So we can go do what we want?" Oshanna asked.

"Yes and Oshanna I hope it was explained to you that after his heroic feat this morning, being shot and then locked up, I gave Lester the rest of today off. You only have Sport for the rest of the day."

"I'd rather have no one at all." She told me.

"That can be arranged. Sport you are on call the rest of the day, you do not need to keep following my sister around while she is on the ship."

"Yes Sir." He responded.

"Anyone else want to get rid of their guards while on the cruise?" I asked. No one else spoke up. "If you leave the ship I would still ask that you take guards with you for the next couple of days. Again, just as a precaution." I encouraged.

"If you are tired of doing things on the ship I asked Skylar to send me a list of things to do in the area." I pulled out my phone and read from a list. "Locally we can tour the Mehana Brewing Company, there is the Imiloa Astronomy Center, the Lyman's Museum and Mission Home, the Pan'ewa Rainforest Zoo, the only one like it in North America and shopping. You never did get to do any shopping this morning. Outdoors there are waterfalls – lots of waterfalls, a scenic drive up the coast, the Hawaii Volcano National Park, botanical gardens, biking, ATV tours, hot ponds, snorkeling, and helicopter rides. There are some overnight trips to see the waterfalls and stay in Volcano Village. Or you can pay to see them by helicopter."

"We could pay?" Oshanna asked.

I nearly rolled my eyes. "You all should still have money on your cards."

"I love waterfalls." said Rachel.

"I think the kids would like the zoo." Leyla added.

"I've never seen an active Volcano. The National Park is supposed to be pretty close to here." Mama said.

"You have been on the ship for three days I figured you all would like to get off if you felt safe enough." I told them. I texted Skylar that the women were shot at this morning and I wanted to set up some fun activities for the afternoon.

"Do you really think we are safe now?" Rachel questioned.

"Yes Rachel I really think it is safe now." I told her.

"But you still want us to travel with guards." Mama clarified.

"When you leave the ship I want you to still have guards. There is no one left to hire men to come after you. The man from this morning is the person who has been hiring the men to attack and with him dead there shouldn't be anyone else, but off the ship I'm not taking any chances when I already have enough guards here for everyone." I explained.

"I would just like to go ashore and spend time seeing what Hawai'i looks like." Oshanna said.

"This is a radical idea, and we would have to get it approved by the ship's captain, but we could pack an overnight bag, rent vehicles on the island and go do activities today. Then we can spend the night in Volcano Village. I've heard the lava at night is spectacular. Then drive to Kona tomorrow and rejoin the cruise there." I offered.

"I'd love to see the lava at night." Mama said.

"It would be nice to get off the ship for a little while." Papa stated.

"This may surprise you Carlos, because you have Skylar that always finds fun things to do, but we spent two days in Maui and barely got off the ship." Oshanna said.

"Then we all deserve an excursion into town. She has already sent me a list of things to do in Kona and there are several fun activities, like a sea-horse tour and the Kona Palace, that look like they could be really fascinating. This is the biggest island. Driving to the volcanos is less than an hour drive, but it is a two hour scenic tour along the edge of the island to get to Kona, if you are up to being in cars that long." I explained to them.

I finished eating my food while the group discussed options and most people wanted to try a night off the ship. My parents and Abuelas wanted to see the lava at night. Stephanie was open but she mostly just wanted to spend time with me. Oshanna and Julio wanted to go out and party but they weren't sure about the long drive. Rachel and Leyla were less certain about going overnight off the ship but were interested in taking their kids to the zoo and possibly Volcano National Park.

I went and talked to the steward about the possibilities and he said that some people do it all the time. That some couples got off the ship overnight in Maui and have already left the ship today. He told me that he has to warn anyone that gets off that in Kona the ship does not dock at the port. It is too small. Instead the ship's tenders are used to shuttle everyone back and forth and if the weather is bad the tenders won't be running and I would have to pay for the family to fly to the next location to get back on the ship. That was fine with me.

I texted everyone as I walked back to our room the possible plans and Oshanna, Julio, my parents, my _abuelas,_ and Stephanie wanted to go on the overnight trip. The families with kids wanted to only do local things and come back to the ship. I called Skylar as I got to our room and laid out on the bed waiting for Stephanie to come out of the bathroom.

"Skylar my lovely, I have several requests."

"Of course you do, Ranger. You wouldn't be you if you didn't have several different things you wanted me to do at the same time." She was saucy with me.

"Is it getting to be too much Princess?" I asked her worried that after these two weeks of constantly calling her she was getting tired of it.

"Never. I live to fulfill your requests. Really you are the only one that brings any challenge to my boring days."

"I hope I'm not overworking you, my dearest lady." I honestly told her.

"Not at all. I just can't wait to see what you need next. I am living vicariously through your family on this vacation."

"Ok so my family is split on this one. Everyone with kids wants to stay with the ship, and do some local sightseeing. Like the zoo and Volcano National Park."

"That's great that you talked them into getting back off the ship after what happened this morning."

"They are being brave but I feel strongly that the danger is over and there is nothing more to worry about. I want to make sure they don't get stuck in being afraid and refuse to get back off the ship so the sooner I can get them off the ship the better."

"What is the plan?"

"We are splitting up but each family needs vehicles. I already have one SUV. Nineteen people staying, with ten guards. Rachel's, Leyla's, Isabella's and Angelia's family want to go to the zoo and Volcano National park this afternoon if you think they can work it in. They have to be back to the ship by 18:00. Eight people and sixteen guards to drive up the coast look at waterfalls and spend the night in Volcano Village if there are rooms. My parents, grandmothers, Julio, Oshanna, Stephanie and me. Twelve dayshift guys, four night shift guys. I will try to get people to make decisions about tomorrow so you have a day to make reservations, my wonderous woman who works so hard and does fabulous things for my family."

"Anything for you Ranger you know that. You are going to have to return your SUV and rent from American Car Rentals. They are the only company you can pick up from in Hilo and return in Kona. Okay, I have reserved fourteen vehicles at the airport but there are only three SUV's I recommend them for the largest families, I rented four minivans because they seat more. But some of your guys are going to have to share a sedan because the number of cars here is limited and smaller."

"Thank you my lovely lady."

"Zoo reservations are done but Volcano National Park is a problem. Everyone should pack a bag and spend the night there because by the time they are done they will have to race back to make it to the ship by 18:00."

"Give me a minute." I told her as I texted all of the adults that wanted to stay encouraging them to come with the family and see the volcano's at night. The next thing I knew they all agreed to come overnight and see the lava glow in the darkness.

"Ok plan for the whole group to go to the zoo and then the volcano and all my men need vehicles."

"Okay the vehicles are taken care of, you just need to get your men to the airport to pick them up."

I immediately started texting my men that they could wait for the next shuttles that run every thirty minutes or take Ubers and go get vehicles at the airport with the plan for the rest of today. Stephanie was out of the bathroom and ready to go, her hair and make-up redone and she was rearranging the contents of her bags so she only needed to bring the smallest one.

"Reservations for the Hotel at Volcano Village and dinner reservations at The Rim are done but I can't buy entrance tickets online you'll have to buy them when you get to the park."

"Fabulous work as always my most hardworking woman."

"Call me if you need anything else Ranger."

"Of course, Goodbye."

I was forwarding the email with all the reservations to my sisters and letting my whole family and all my men know the plans for the afternoon. I texted all of my nightshift to prepare to exit the ship for the night.

"Stephanie do you want to ride with me to the airport to get the cars?"

"Sure." She smiled at me.

I was walking the gangplank into the hot afternoon sun holding onto Stephanie's hand without any additional guards and it felt good, freeing even, to not have a group of men surrounding us. We got into the SUV I had already rented. I had noticed the smaller cars that were popular on this island and hoped our rental cars were bigger. I turned my SUV back in to Enterprise and we had to walk through several parking lots to the other car rental.

We arrived at American Car Rental, a company I had never used before. Several of my men were already in line and I cut in front of Hal.

"Excuse you." He said acting affronted.

"If I'm paying I have to go first." I explained.

"I can go first and you can still pay." He held up his RangeMan credit card and gave me a smirk. A smirk on Hal's boyish face that looked more relaxed than I had seen it since we left Trenton. I was astonished.

"Reservations are in my name. But if you stick close you will get your choice of vehicles because they only have a few SUVs otherwise you'll be driving a minivan." I told him and he looked horrified.

I got the keys to three Suburbans, two Tahoes, four Caravans, two Cadillac XTS sedans because they seat five, and three Mustang convertibles, just for fun. I had planned to take a Tahoe but kept a Mustang for myself and Stephanie. My men were happy to drive everything but the Caravans and after recalculating my family's numbers, turned the four Caravans back in and got three more hard top Mustangs and a Chrysler 300. Stephanie and I drove with the top down, letting the Hawaiian sun seep into us, warming us and relaxing us and I made a note to bring her a hat.

I came back to the ship and hollered for everyone to come out into the hallway. Of course all my men immediately responded but only Rachel, Ron and Leyla poked their heads out of their doors. I asked them if they felt comfortable driving themselves and when they said 'yes' I gave them each a Suburban and told them we were leaving in about thirty minutes. I saved the other Suburban for Isabella and Diego, a Cadillac for my parents and planned to asked my _abuelas_ if they would ride with my parents. Gave Sport a Tahoe and passed out three cars to the nightshift crew so they could drive straight there and maybe sleep a little more before tonight's shift. I passed the other two convertibles to Marc and Lester. I called all my dayshift men for a meeting as my family disappeared back into their rooms.

"To bring everyone up to speed. This morning Santiago Martinez that was hired by Sergio to take the women out pinned the women down with machine gun fire while they were walking down the street. Lester and Ram crossed the street under heavy fire and took him out. Lester shot him three times and he died of shock or a heart attack, they are still determining which. The weekend trip was successful and Sergio won't be putting any more hits out on anyone. For all intents and purposes the protection detail is over. But there is the slight outside chance that Santiago hired some other killers before being killed. If he had I think he would have had them attacking the women this morning but since it was just him I think that was his last ditch effort to kill some of the women."

"Still to be prudent," I continued, "we will keep one men on each target during the day when they leave the boat. You no longer need to follow them on the boat. Rotating eight men on at a time. You no longer need to drive with them, I'm letting the families drive themselves except for Oshanna and Julio. But follow behind and be close in case there is any trouble. After a very tense discussion with the Chief of Police here on Hawai'i we are going to be allowed to carry while on the island when out in the open. Carry a full gun belt, stun gun, and live ammo. Today we are going to the zoo, only bring stun guns into the park and then up to the Volcano National Park. We will be stopping along the way to look at waterfalls or whatever is along the drive. We will be looking at the volcano in the dark tonight. Then we are driving to Kailua-Kona tomorrow and rejoining the ship."

"I have not yet offered but I am going to offer for the family to stay here in Oahu till Sunday afternoon or morning if they want to get an early start." I explained. "Then we will head back to Trenton where the protection detail officially ends. I have offered to extend protection for anyone that doesn't feel secure going back to their lives. Assignments for today: Tiger – Stephanie, Gavin – both grandmothers, Francis – Maria, Tony – Leyla, Bobby – Angelia, Red – Isabella, Sport – Oshanna, Scott – Julie and Rachel. If my grandmothers split up they are probably going with another target. Gavin, stay with Grandma Sanja and let the other man take over Grandma Rosa. Pack up, we are leaving in thirty."

My men all nodded their assent and disappeared back to their rooms. I pulled Lester aside and told him if he wanted a break he could stay on the ship and we would catch up to him tomorrow. He dangled a set of Mustang keys in front of me and said no way was he going to miss driving up the coast in a convertible or seeing the volcano at night.

While I was talking to my men my parents, and my _abuelas;_ Richard,Isabella and Diego showed up with Angelia and all their kids. I called the rest my family out into the hallway for a meeting.

"How is everyone doing now?" I asked.

"Better." Came from Mama.

"Excited." Came from some of the boys.

"Anxious." Came from Oshanna.

"Ready to go." Came from Isabella.

I was aware that those caught in the firefight this morning were mostly quiet.

"Let me start by saying to everyone that you handled the incident this morning admirably and that the problem is over. We got all the bad guys and there shouldn't be anyone else coming after you. So to celebrate and to have some fun and see Hawai'i we are going to get off this ship. After today you can drive yourselves and only have one guard when out and about during the day, no guards while you are on the ship. If anyone is still worried about their safety and doesn't feel that this is enough protection let me know but the threats have been eliminated and the sources shut down so we shouldn't have any more problems."

"Today the plan is to go to the Zoo and then travel onto Volcano National Park and spend the night there. The drive is supposed to be very scenic and I've heard there are waterfalls, so you are welcome to stop along the way and take pictures and just enjoy the scenery. I think we should plan on leaving the National Park by 10:00 tomorrow if that sounds good to the group. There are two main activities in Kona that I think everyone would enjoy, the Seahorse tour and the Kona Palace. Text me back by dinner anything else you are interested in so we can find out if we can fit it in during the time we have available. If we need to leave earlier to fit something in we can do that too. If you want to stay at the volcanos longer, it is about a two and a half hour drive back so you want to be leaving by 1:00pm to have plenty of time to return to the ship and can stop for lunch. We have to return the rental cars to the airport by about 4:00pm tomorrow. Catch taxis or Ubers to the Port and then get tenders to go to the boat. The boat leaves at 5:30pm."

"I have car keys for everyone. They didn't have a bunch of SUVs here so some people have cars. Isabella and Diego, I have the last SUV for your family. Mama and Papa I have a Cadillac for you and the _abuelas_. Oshanna you are not twenty-five so you have to ride with Sport, but you can ride in the front passenger seat. Julio you are a single male under the age of thirty so you also have to ride but you can pick any car to ride in." _Just not mine._ "Angelia, I saved a car for you, but you can have one of my men drive so you can relax and enjoy the scenic views and take care of your kids." I handed her the key to the other Cadillac. "I want to make you aware that the ship docks back in Oahu at 7:00 Saturday morning. As far as I know nobody has to get back to Jersey before Monday." I looked around the group for confirmation. "So if you want, I was thinking we could sightsee on Saturday and fly home on Sunday. Is that acceptable with everyone?"

There were a lot of head nods and yesses.

"It is still about six hours of flying back to New Jersey and eight and a half back to Miami so I think we should leave early enough to get home and turned around before you have to go back to work and school on Monday, I'm thinking about leaving at 10 am. Right now we are leaving the boat in twenty minutes. Pack only an overnight bag. Several of your kids can probably share a bag. Leave anything you don't need for the next twenty-four hours on the ship. Everyone relax and have a good rest of your day."

Returning to our room, I emptied everything out of my bag that was not needed for this overnight trip and put my bag out in the hall then helped Stephanie repack her little shoulder bag for the night. I have always been thankful to be a man but when I looked at all the extra clothes (different shoes for every outfit, bras, underwear etc.) that women are required to wear and all the bathroom products they need for hair and face it makes me doubly glad to not be a woman. I carefully helped her pack and went out in the hallway to find most of my family ready to go.

Angelia of course was still busy repacking bags for the three of them. Really she only needed one bag: three sets of nightclothes, three outfits for tomorrow, they could wear the same shoes and her toiletries, but she had four bags laid out that she was struggling with so I went in her room to help her pack. I conceded two extra outfits for Ricky since he is still potty training and allowed a whole separate bag for her (but only one) and we got her ready to go. When I went out in the hallway again most of my family was ready and waiting. I took Stephanie's hand and our bags and led her off the ship with my family and men trailing behind us.

I felt so light and free. It had been two weeks since receiving that video in the middle of the night and I had Stephanie by my side and she was safe. My whole family was safe. Sergio was gone spectacularly, and Santiago was dead. We had four more days in this tropical paradise. If it was just me and Stephanie I would take her off the cruise permanently, but with my whole family it was better to have just this one night excursion on the island.

It didn't take long till we were all loaded up and heading for the Pan'ewa Rainforest Zoo. Less than twenty minutes later we were all piling out of our vehicles and filing towards the entrance. Once inside there was a big Aloha sign welcoming us to the zoo. I hadn't taken a park map but followed the group around holding onto Stephanie's hand. As we walked the sky became cloudier like it was going to rain but it seemed to hold off.

We passed an endless slew of different kinds of birds chirping and crying out. Three year old Ricky saw a wild peacock that roamed loose around the park and chased it a short ways till it spun around to face him, opened its feathers and began to shake them. It was a beautiful display and the feathers were taller than Ricky which seemed to stop him in his tracks. Everyone was in awe of the peacock and quickly pulled out cell phones and cameras to capture the moment.

Big cats always impress me with their beauty and raw power and the orange Bengal tiger was no different, as it paced impatiently in front of a door where I expected food awaited her. There was a white Bengal tiger playing in the pool of water and he suddenly hopped out, shook slightly and charged the orange tiger, tackling her and getting her wet while they wrestled for a few minutes, giving the family a great show.

This zoo highlighted animals that thrive in different rainforests. So they had alligators, snakes, and different lizards including a kimono dragon that lay out basking in the sun. There was a butterfly garden and play area for all the kids. Several of the kids, and Stephanie of course, begged so huge cones of shaved ice in every flavor were bought and passed around. There was also a coy pond with a tunnel that they kids took turns crawling through that came up in the middle of the pond, where they could stand and be surrounded by the large colorful fish.

We were notified by a zoo worker that the zoo was getting ready to close and the families began herding their little ones towards the front gate. Then we were back in our cars again and I led the caravan less than fifteen minutes to beautiful Rainbow Falls.

Much of my family was very excited about seeing the waterfalls as there are many in Hawai'i but we hadn't seen any yet. After walking down a trail and going up a bunch of stairs we got to the lookout point where the falls are eighty feet tall. The falls are part of the Wailuku river and were named for the rainbows formed in the spray that shoots up out of the bottom and reflects in the morning sunlight. Because it was so late in the afternoon there was no reflecting light but my family loved seeing the falls just the same.

These falls cascade over a lava cave that legend says is the home to the ancient Hawaiian goddess Hina, their goddess of the moon. As we walked up the path there were some huge Bayan trees that were very entwined. These trees were five to six feet wide and more than ten feet around. They looked very intricately woven but are said to be hundreds of years old.

When we got down to the bottom I asked the adults if they wanted to stop at another waterfall or head on up the coast and another waterfall was the unanimous reply. The Wai'ale Falls trail was a little over a half mile and it led us up to the top of the falls. The Wai'ale falls were a two part waterfall that seemed to have a heavier flow than Rainbow falls even though it was the same river.

The upper part of the falls was broken up into several sections and fell about thirty feet. The lower part of the falls was wider but fell only about twenty to twenty five feet. The family enjoyed the hike but my mother stopped us as we were headed back and crossed the bridge where you could see both falls together and arranged the whole family into one photo. She got her photo and everyone broke off taking their own photos of family and waterfalls.

When we were done there, I led the family driving up the coast. I put the top down on the Mustang and gave Stephanie a hat to hold down her hair. The whole drive was covered in lush foliage and Steph alternated between holding my hand and playing with the radio. She eventually found a station that was playing Hawaiian music and left it there for the remainder of the trip. The hot sun beat down on us, but the cooler wind blowing through the car made the temperatures more tolerable.

Fortunately the trip didn't take too long because Stephanie's stomach had started making noises. We had passed several restaurants when I realized we were at the Volcano National Park and paid the entrance fee for all the cars. A little way inside the park was our hotel, The Volcano House, and there was a big sign for The Rim restaurant as well. I led my family into the hotel and sent them to get seated in the restaurant while Stephanie and I checked everybody into their rooms.

Once Stephanie and I got seated and had ordered I walked around to every table and handed out room keys. I told each family what I had found out about the volcanos and had several maps I had gotten from the front desk clerk. Apparently there were three must sees in the park. First, steam vents where you could see and feel the steam escaping from below ground. Second, the Jaggar Museum which has the active lava of the Kilauea caldera. Third was the lava tube. I told my family about each and went to sit with Stephanie as the sun went down.

The whole north wall of the restaurant was all floor to ceiling windows for easy viewing of the smoking volcano and the tropical outdoors. We witnessed a beautiful sunset as our food was served, followed by watching the glow from the Kilauea caldera. The atmosphere was perfect and the sunset romantic as Stephanie and I held hands and talked quietly. I had the Kona Kamachi – a farm raised yellow fish with poached lobster, seaweed salad and jasmine rice. I requested my lobster boiled or grilled with no butter. Stephanie had the New York strip with lobster tail, mashed potatoes and macadamia nut green beans.

I took her hand and kissed the back of it.

"So Babe, we are back in Hawaii together, and you have a ring on your finger again." I smiled at her. "Is there anything special you would like to do? Maybe when we get back to Honolulu?"

"Carlos, I missed you these past several days. I just want to spend time with you."

"Well you know last time we were in Oahu we were getting ready to go see the Arizona and do a half day trip up the mountain."

"Yes, I wanted to see the memorial. The half day trip was your idea." She clarified. I smirked to myself. It had been my idea but I had talked her into coming.

"So on Saturday we'll be in Honolulu again. Is there anything specific you want to do?"

"Carlos, Hawaii was special because you were there, and we were hanging out, relaxing. Having a lot of ' _personal, private time'_. In fact the first three days we did nothing but hang on the beach for a while, supposedly watching for the Rug and having _'personal, private time'_ everywhere and on every surface imaginable. I just want to spend these last few days relaxing and having fun with you and your family."

"Good choice Babe."

I texted Skylar: _'My family loved the zoo and the waterfalls. We are currently having dinner at The Rim and watching the glowing crater and having a great time. They enjoyed the drive it was beautiful. My dearest Skylar on Thursday and Friday the cruise ship will be in Nawiliwili and if you could please, see what activities might be available for the family to do there. Only half my men will be working if you want to throw in a couple of activities for them too. Saturday we will be in Oahu for the day if you can put together a list of activities for everyone. We are planning on leaving Sunday between 10 and noon if you can have the plane stocked and ready. We will fly back to NJ and then onto Miami. Thanks so much, my perfection!_

' _In a meeting and can't call me?'_

' _Having a romantic dinner with Stephanie and I don't want to be rude.'_

' _Have a great dinner and treat that woman special. I'll have something for you tonight.'_

After dinner the family wandered down to see the Kilauea caldera's glowing crater up close. Skylar texted me back.

' _Nawiliwili: Kilohana Plantation; train ride, dining, history and retail therapy. Outfitter Kauai River Kayak ½ day excursion to see Secret Falls, Blue Hawaii Helicopter tour, Wailua Falls, Kalapaki Beach, Surfing lessons, Lydgate Beach Park, Menehune Fish Pond, Kauai Museum, Smith Family luau in the sacred Wailua River valley, Snorkel and Sail with the turtles, Back country tubing, Luau Kalamaku – fire knife dancers and the history of the islands, Fern Grotto Tour, Na Aina Kai Botanical Gardens, Koloa Ziplines, Sunshine Farmer's Market, Hilo Hattie Shopping tourist and formal wear.'_

' _I'm reserving vehicles for the day how many do you think you'll need?'_

' _Reserve fifteen. Only a third of my men are working and the rest will be getting off the ship for sure.'_

' _Done. Let me know what the family wants to do and I'll make reservations where I can.'_

I forwarded her text to everyone including my men.

' _Oahu: Waikiki Beach, Pearl Harbor Arizona memorial, WW II memorial, Diamond Head State Park, Diamond Head Crater Hike, surfing lessons, paddle boarding, ocean kayaking, Banana boat canoeing, Lanikai Beach, Sunset Paddleboard Yoga, Manoa Falls, Snorkel at Hanauma Bay, Luumahu Fall's, Makapu'u Point Light House Trail, Rock n Roll luau, Traditional fire luau, Historic Art Museum, Honolulu Zoo, Waikiki Aquarium, Dole Pinapple farm, Lankai Pillbox Hike, North Shore drive and beach, Ziplining, Shark fishing, Chinatown Markets traditional Chinese markets, Ala Moana Shopping Center 4-story shopping, Aloha's Stadium Swap Meet (open air market with over 400 venders), Kuliouou ridge trail, muddy ATV rides through Jurassic Park, Submarine tour, Scuba dive to a shipwreck, Jet pack over Maunalua Bay, Skydive Hawaii 20,000 ft special.'_

Again I forwarded her text to everyone. Then I texted her back.

' _Set up a full skydiving trip for Steph and me. Reserve all the slots for any of my family or men that want to go.'_

' _Ready to be set up, times available 8:00, 9:30, 10:00, 10:30 12, 1:30 2, 4:30.'_

Our Hotel and the rental cars were near the airport. Once again shuttles from the hotel were going to pick us up from the cruise ship at 07:00 and bring us to the hotel. I google mapped it, it was a thirty minute drive to the airstrip.

' _9:30'_ I texted back.

I texted Rachel and Ron and asked if Julie could come with me to skydive on Saturday, promising to keep her safe and inviting anyone else from their family that wanted to go.

Ron texted back that they would discuss it.

It was deep into the evening when we finally went back to the parking lot and drug our bags to our room. I met with the nightshift crew and gave them their new orders. I filled them in on the earlier day activities. Since most of them hadn't gotten much sleep today, and the threat level was low I put them on duty three at a time, for four-hour shifts, just hourly walking around and checking all the rooms.

I told them if they hadn't already, to see the glow of the crater during the night and to try to get some sleep because it would be a long day tomorrow. I explained that I was going to keep someone on duty all night until we got back home just as a precaution, but that they no longer had to stand at attention. They could get chairs and sit, play games on their phones or play card games with each other, just to do the hourly checks.

Once our stuff was settled in our room we drove to the official Kilauea lookout and watched the glow from a closer vantage point. As we stood there watching I pulled Stephanie close and fully relaxed as I felt her body melt into mine. This whole nightmare was over and I was going to make sure it never happened again.

Back in our room, Stephanie put on the pink baby doll outfit and twirled showing it off for me. I took Stephanie to bed that night slowly, carefully, deliberately, lovingly. Showing her with all that I am that I love her and would do anything for her. As she lay spent in my arms the image of her round with my child popped into my head again and I thought if it happened I would love it. But I wasn't ready for that to happen yet and of course she would have to be onboard, I wouldn't go poking holes in the condoms. This made me laugh to myself that most women knowing how much I am now worth would probably happily have my baby if I wanted. But Stephanie is her own woman and I can't see her having a baby for anyone. Maybe though if I show her we could hire as much help and protection as she needed and that she could still work she might go along with it.

Wednesday May 26

The next morning, I slept in until 07:00. I texted everyone to enjoy the breakfast buffet at The Rim. That if they needed to, today would be a good day to contact their bosses and assure them they would be back to work next Monday. I let them know they were now free to contact anyone they wanted. I encouraged them to take their luggage with them and explore the park this morning. That I would be checking everyone out at 8:00 but that they could stay in the park till 10:00 when we would head to Kona. I texted nightshift that they could head back to the ship whenever they wanted or stay and enjoy the park.

All throughout the morning people texted me with what they wanted to do the rest of the week in Nawiliwili and Oahu and I forwarded the texts to Skylar.

Breakfast was wonderful as they had more than I had hoped for. They had fresh made smoothies with low fat yogurt and almond milk. An egg station where they would make any kind of egg you wanted and I got an egg white omelet with spinach, zucchini, tomatoes and red and yellow peppers. Stephanie filled her plate with pastries, bacon, sausage, and went to have fresh waffles made with the special jams they offered. I had an omelet made for her with cheese, bacon, zucchini and tomatoes and hoped she didn't get too picky about it. I had them put extra cheese on top.

They had a special turkey hash with red and yellow peppers, roasted potatoes, macadamia nuts and green onions. I got myself some and then added some to Stephanie's plate. I was waiting at our table when she returned. The plate I made for her to the side but obviously next to her drink.

"What are you drinking?" She asked.

"Milkshake" I told her.

"There are milkshakes?" She sounded excited. "Do they have chocolate?"

"I think they are only making fruit milkshakes, mango, strawberry and banana, separately or combined. Do you want me to go get you one?"

She looked at my drink dubiously and hesitated. "What kind did you get?"

"Strawberry banana."

"Let me try yours and we will see." I passed her my glass and she took a sip and made a face.

"For a milkshake that is not very cold or sweet. Like it's not made with ice cream."

"It's made with frozen strawberries and bananas." I offered.

"Maybe I'll get one when we leave." she suggested. I knew from her plate she would be too full but nodded in assent.

She ate her waffles aggressively and noisily like she hadn't eaten in a week and then started on the omelet. Several bites in she paused.

"You know it can still be an omelet without vegetables in it." She complained as she picked out a zucchini.

"But the vegetables are grilled and add flavor." I protested.

"Green stuff doesn't go with my omelets."

I pointed to the remainder of my omelet and she said "Yeah I rest my case. If it's not yellow and it doesn't have cheese or meat it is more of a salad than a breakfast food." She insisted.

"Babe I'm not trying to take away your sweets. I'm just adding a little bit of healthy protein and good carbs into your diet. Don't knock them on principle. Those zucchini are grilled and rather good." I said as I forked two pieces from the small pile she had made and ate them.

She gave me a weak smile, and with a huge serving of cheesy egg forked one zucchini into her mouth.

My phone beeped with a text from Skylar.

' _Seahorse farm is booked. Owner offered special deal $150 a person and she would do the tour personally._ '

I did the quick calculation in my head and realized with my dayshift men it was $7650. With everyone it was $9000 but I didn't expect my nightshift men to come.

' _Agree to whatever she requests and then double it.'_ I texted back. I had read the little blurb Skylar had sent me on the seahorse farm and it seemed like they did good ecological work that I wanted to support.

After breakfast I paid for all the rooms and meals but asked that the keycards stay active till the 11:00 normal check-out time.

We walked out into the bright morning sun and saw the Kilauea steaming away, but didn't stay long.

"The night glow is more interesting." Stephanie declared and I had to agree.

We saw two steam vents that were barred off and had steam that you could feel the heat from pouring up into the sky. Then we went to see the Thurston Lava Tube. It was a 500 year old lava tube that was formed when the lava cooled around the edges but is still flowing hot in the middle. We walked down a well marked path, that was surrounded by dense foliage and trees that rose well above our heads and was filled with birds we could hear calling to each other. A short bridge led to the opening of the tube. This tube was fifteen to twenty feet around. The sides looked like smooth rock, but were hardened lava. It was lit every twenty five to thirty feet with lights bored into the sides of the tube. The tube was about six hundred feet deep.

Once we got across the bridge I held Stephanie's hand and I wondered if I would ever tire of being near her. We walked along feeling the sides, avoiding the parts of the bottom that were covered in puddles and getting dripped on from the porous roof. Stephanie squealed as she slipped in her sandals on the slick ground and I grabbed her to keep her from going down. Her cute white sandals, white shorts and light blue t-shirt were very touristy and tropical while I was still in all black. Black cargo shorts, black tank top, black boots with a full gun belt. I didn't look like I was on vacation and it justified the strange looks we got as we walked around together.

As we left the tube I gave her the map and asked her where she wanted to go. She looked at me. "You need to look like you are on vacation. No one is going to bother us here in the park. Why don't you lose the gun belt and try smiling at a few people. I mean people see you and they trip over themselves to get out of our way. You look like you are ready to take down an armed terrorist and some people are wondering if you are one." She huffed at me.

I did feel a little over dressed with all the tourists running around, so I slipped my gun belt off and tucked my Glock into the back of my pants, untucked my shirt and pulled it down over the shorts.

"Better?" I asked.

"Better." She said and lifted up the map.

"So we have about half an hour, what do you want to do?" I asked her. She looked at the map.

"Why don't we drive this route down the Chain of Craters road and stop at some of the craters then drive down and look at the ocean."

"Sure." So we drove around and looked at wide craters, some that were smooth and had cooled, some that were still smoking. The ocean was a beautiful azure blue and there was a nice breeze blowing onto the island as we found a parking lot to stop and walk down to the cliffs. There we could see the Holei Sea Arch. An arch formed by the sea as it cut away part of the cliff wall. I held her close as the breeze blew our clothes and her hair around with the hot Hawaiian sun beating down on us.

"You know," I told her, "when I brought that ring I didn't know we were going to end up in Hawai'i but it was one of the choices and I thought a real possibility. I thought I would find the right spot on the island and propose to you here. I hadn't planned on proposing to you so soon."

"Are you sorry I rushed it? That I forced the issue?"

"Not at all. I was thrilled to propose to you in Florida. I honestly didn't think you would want me to. I figured we would start dating and I would propose further down the line, or like I said here in Hawai'i."

"I never knew you were such a romantic." She teased.

"Not a romantic, a planner. In any operation you want the plan with the highest probability of success and I figured if I asked you in a romantic spot, especially with a bunch of people around, you would have to say yes. The crowd of people staring would guarantee it." I smirked at her.

"You would use crowd pressure to get your way."

"I would use every kind of pressure I could think of. After I got you down off that building I didn't want to let you out of my arms ever again. Now that's not realistic, because life has to go on. But I would have proposed to you right then if I thought you would have said yes."

"That would have been awkward in front of the police who know me and knew I was kidnapped out of Joe's bed."

"Yes the crowd pressure there would have leaned in the wrong direction. I'm just letting you know that from that moment, that second on, I wanted you forever and I knew I just had to bide my time until you and Joe broke up again and then I was going to have you as mine." I turned her to face me. "I was thinking of flowers and heart shaped donuts, and I would get Lula and Connie on board. I would take you out to dinner every night and take you to New York for a weekend of shopping and eating. Then after a few months have you move in with me and have you finally come and meet my family."

"Meet your family? I thought you planned this trip to have me alone and meet your family."

"I hadn't thought it that far through. I only decided after talking to my mother and her refusing to go to a safe house that I was going to have to get creative and take my family away somewhere safe. It wasn't till we were discussing it as a family and they all agreed to go away that I wanted you and Julie to come too. Poor Julie hadn't seen my family since she was a baby. I knew it would be a shock to her and I knew my parents would be glad to see her but I didn't know how the rest of my family would react to Rachel and Julie and their whole family."

Stephanie laughed at me and said "But it turned out pretty well. Having everyone meet at the pool and start playing together was a good plan. We were all more relaxed with each other. I started out scared of them all. Oshanna and Angelia sat down in the loungers next to me and started talking about shoes and shopping and I joined in. Then they were bitching about you and this trip and I told them I was stuck in a room with you and needed my own room and Oshanna invited me to bunk with her." She smiled at me. "I think she did it to get back at you as much as to help me out."

I smiled back at her. That would be just like Oshanna to help Stephanie to get back at me.

"Yeah but it backfired. I showed up in the middle of the night and when I tried to get out of bed in the morning you were wrapped around me like a vine clutching to the side of a building. I couldn't even get up," I laughed to myself.

"I'll never know what it is about you. Your warmth or your sexy smell, but something draws me close when I sleep and I wake up sleeping on top of you." She admitted.

"You'll never hear me complain. I don't know what it is about you either but sleeping near you, where I can hear you breathing and smell you calms me and lets me sleep deeper and more relaxed."

"It's the hot sex. It wears you out."

"The sex is amazing but just being near you, like in Miami, with no sex helps me sleep better."

We fell silent as we looked out over the ocean holding each other close. After watching the waves bash relentlessly into the cliffs I kissed the side of her neck and led her back to the car. On our way through the park we stopped at several more marked features.

The Kealakomo Overlook was a path leading to a railed platform that overlooked a huge drop. Where an earthquake caused the land to split and shift downward fifteen feet and forward twenty feet. We had to be more than a mile from the ocean here but the land under us was so much lower we could easily see the cliffs and the white capping waves further out to sea. Kealakomo translated to "the entrance path". It is the name of an ancient village that sat below the lookout and over the cliffs below.

Our next stop was the Mau Loa O Mauna Ulu or "forever growing mountain". It was a vast sea of hardened lava that crisscrossed the Chain of Craters road. It was left over from the last time Mauna Ulu erupted. Here some of the hardened lava looks shiny and the information sign says it is from the pahoehoe lava flow, created from the outer layer of silica that looks somewhat like surface glass.

The Pauahi Crater means "destroyed by fire". It was a massive crater about 500 feet deep.

"It must be a mile long." Stephanie remarked.

"Actually it is about 2000 feet, less than half a mile." I explained.

"How do you know how long a mile is?"

"A mile is 5280 feet, or six furlongs." I told her.

"What is a furlong?"

"I don't remember where the term originated from but a furlong is 660 feet."

"Know it all." She exclaimed and began reading the sign that was planted in front of the crater. "In November 1973 there was an eruption that lasted 31 days, creating the present crater floor. This eruption also opened a fissure east of the crater towards Pu'uhululu. This fissure eruption became a phase of the 1969-1974 Mauna Ulu eruptions. The Pauahi Crater is approximately 1800 to 2000 feet long, 300 to 500 feet deep and 300 feet wide. The Pauahi Crater is culturally significant and religious to many of the Hawaiian people. At times you may view a, how do you say that?" She pointed to the sign.

"Ho'okupu"

"Ho'okupu offering wrapped in ti leaf, which should not be touched or disturbed." Then she looked down.

"Oh look, Carlos, over by that bush there are three ho'okupu."

I just wrapped my arm around her and pulled her to me and imagined scaling down the side of this crater. Figuring out where I would anchor my ropes and which side I would want to rappel down, the steeper side that was clear or the less steep side that was littered with trees. Three hundred feet is approximately a twenty five story building. Five hundred feet is about forty-two stories. It is early in the morning but the heat is up to the mid-eighties already. I don't know enough about the lava to know how hot it gets and if it absorbs the suns heat or reflects it back turning the great big crater into an easy man bake oven.

Definitely a climb I would rather make in the early morning, or if we wanted to get really fun, the middle of the night. It's too bad we are leaving the island today. I know that Marc and Santos and probably Tiger would love a good climb. I can only imagine the look on the park ranger's face who finds us playing in their crater. Not like they are going to come over the side and come after us but they could stand around the edges and yell at us. Definitely a middle of the night climb. Hell it would be worth the trip back just to do it. Not that there aren't other places to rappel down, it's just this looks like fun.

Stephanie is pulling at my arms to get free and she is now taking my hand and leading me up the path breaking my intriguing trance.

"Babe."

Our last stop was the Lua Manu Crater. It was a crater but it was different from all the other formations we had seen because the lava just poured full strength till it ran up to green trees and forest. Some trees were half burnt by the lava but still alive and growing back. This lava was not smooth but rough and stood up in places.

Stephanie read the sign again and I really enjoyed listening to her tell me about each site more than I could put into words. "Lau Manu meaning "bird crater" was formed during the eruption of Keanakako'i in 1974. A fissure opened east of what is now the Lua Manu Crater and lava flowed into the crater filling it with about 50 feet of lava. However about two-thirds of the lava drained back into a fissure that cut its east crater wall. This lava flow also crossed the Chain of Craters Road. Lua Manu Crater is generally considered to be the uppermost crater along the Chain of Craters in the upper east rift zone. Lua Manu Crater was formed with lava drained from the lava chamber beneath the surface, creating a void. This void caused the surface to collapse. The crater rim has no tephra (cinder, ash) deposits on the rim, thus indicating that there was no eruption or explosive event in its forming."

When she was done reading she looked around at the crater and back up at me giving me a big smile. "I know that the lava just burnt down everything in its path and those trees are alive because it stopped short of them, but it just looks like they stood up to the lava and said "ye shall not pass" and the lava left them alone."

"Babe" I pulled her to me and kissed the top of her head.

"Well this was the last crater on this road. We are back at Jaggar Museum and Kilauea caldera where we started and it is 9:48. I think we need to figure out where we are meeting the family."

Damn my plans. I had gotten so caught up in the threat being over I named the time but not the place to meet and my family was bound to be all over the park.

I texted my family to find out their locations and as it turned out most of them had finished up and were also back at Kilauea caldera. I texted everyone to come to the Kilauea caldera and followed Stephanie inside the Jaggar Museum so she could go to the gift shop and buy a t-shirt. After looking around she got a pretty black one that had the orange glowing Kilauea caldera at night with the stars and it read Volcano National Park, Hawai'i. I had to laugh because as much as we had looked at this steaming vault we had never actually gone over and read the signs.

We held hands as we walked along waiting our turn. Stephanie read each sign as we got to them. Turned out the whole open area is called Kilauea caldera, the mountain we were on is Kilauea, one of the world's most active volcanoes and one of the five volcanoes that makes up the island of Hawai'i. The crater down in the caldera, spewing gases during the day and glowing orange lava at night is actually called the Halema'uma'u crater. Prior to March 2008 eruption, this erupting vent was about 125 feet in diameter. Now it is approximately 525 feet across.

The Jaggar Museum is named after Thomas Jaggar, who in 1912 set up the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory here on the rim of Kilauea caldera. He was principal in getting the 1916 bill forming the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson. The park has become a World Heritage Site attracting 2.6 million tourists annually.

Kilauea's names means "spewing" or "much spreading." It is a shield volcano and the most active of the five volcanoes that together form the island of Hawai'i. Kilauea's current eruption dates back to January 3, 1983. This is its longest historical period of activity, as well as one of the longest duration eruptions in the world. As of January 2011 this eruption has produced 1 cubic mile of lava and resurfaced 123.2 km, 48 square miles of land.

At 600,000 years old, Kilauea is still quite young for a Hawaiian volcano, only having emerged above sea level about 100,000 years ago. The oldest volcano on the island, Kohala is more than a million years old. Kilauea is the second youngest volcano in the Hawaiian-Emoeror seamount chain, a chain of shield volcanoes and seamounts extending from Hawaii to the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench in Russia.

Historically, the five volcanoes on the island were considered sacred by the Hawaiian people, and in Hawaiian mythology Kilauea's Halema'uma'u Crater served as the body and home of Pele, goddess of fire, lightning, wind and volcanoes.

"Oh my god. This is where Brody Logan stole the tiki from."

"Brody Logan?"

"The guy with the wooden tiki that showed up when Orin was there. He rammed Orin with it and Orin shot it." She said on a rush. I remembered some kid in flowered board shorts holding a big round wooden statue but at the time I was more worried about Orin and Stephanie.

"Wasn't he one of your skips?'

"Yeah but he saved my life and he was a good kid so I bought him tickets to bring the tiki back to Hawai'i."

I spun her around and held her in my arms. "You're such a good person." I told her as I kissed her and she was, too good for the likes of me who can get off torturing and killing my enemies. But it didn't matter anymore. She was permanently in danger from knowing me and I would spend my life and my considerable wealth protecting her.

"Come on Babe, my family is over there." The viewing area around the caldera was large but most of my family and men were gathered about thirty feet away from us where the crowds were smaller.

We gathered with everyone and five minutes later the rest of the group was there and we headed out. It was a beautiful and relaxing two hour and fifteen minute drive up the west coast of Hawai'i. We drove with the radio on, playing relaxing Hawaiian music and holding hands.

To be continued….

A/N: Did you enjoy the volcano's and the island of Hawai'i with the family? I learned that officially the big island of Hawai'i is spelled with an apostrophe in the name but the state of Hawaii is not. I shared a lot of the facts I learned about the big island as Ranger and Stephanie explored it. I hope you enjoyed learning a little more about it as much as I did.

Thank you all for your reviews I love them all! Thank you my guest reviews you made me think, laugh and write harder. There are several new reviewers and all the old ones I want to thank. As always thank you Vulcan Rider for your thoughtful reviews. Thank you Buddy'sBabe, Ybanormlmom, loved your name and your review. Shellbell78, Angela Muller, aruvqan, First Generation Scot, daxandpat, trhodes09, annalynn88, Elenimou, bb2020, baileygirl12, Candie Marie, Mermaid's Fluke, Emerald Seas 45, Dragon Fruitte, and Garbonzobeans. All your reviews make me smile and I eat them all up like a big slice of chocolate cake! Yum!

This is my last twice a week posting, I will continue my regular postings on Friday mornings.

As always big THANK YOU to my beta Sassysaint for all your help and encouragement!

Second Big THANK YOU to my sister, Jonelle. Thank you for fixing all my many little mistakes.


	33. Chapter 33 Kona Seahorses Swimming Free

Chapter 33 Kailua-Kona Seahorses

Wednesday May 26

 _We gathered with everyone and five minutes later the rest of the group was there and we headed out. It was a beautiful and relaxing two hour and fifteen minute drive up the west coast of Hawai'i. We drove with the radio on, playing relaxing Hawaiian music and holding hands._

A little after 13:00 we arrived at Ocean Rider Seahorse Farm. Stephanie and I led the way into the giftshop which was small and there was no one inside. I rang the bell at the counter and a young blond stuck her head in.

"I'm sorry sir the tour is already sold-out and the next tour isn't until 2:00."

"I don't think we had a scheduled time. I'm supposed to ask for Carol."

"Carol is the owner she doesn't do tours." She said snidely.

"Will you let her know the Manoso group has arrived?"

At that moment a tall middle aged woman with short blond hair came through the back door.

"Carol this is the Manoso group they say they have a tour."

"Thank you Shauna. I'll take it from here."

She turned to me. "Hi I'm Carol. I'm the owner here. Your travel assistant was very persuasive. I don't usually do the tours here anymore."

"Yes she is a wonder. It is her job to keep the family happily entertained and she will go to extraordinary lengths to do so."

"Are you Carlos?"

"Yes that's me. This is my family but I am basically in charge of the group."

She held out her hand to me. "Nice to meet you Carlos. She told me you had twenty seven people. Our tours are usually about ten to twelve but we can split your group into two and work it that way."

"Whatever works for you." I told her realizing that my men were not part of the tour. Of course I didn't know how many of them would want to learn about fish anyway.

She followed me outside as the family gathered in the parking lot and started counting off people. Another brown-haired woman carrying a black and yellow box attached to a hands-free headset microphone joined her. They were dividing my family up and my men were swarming around.

I walked out into the parking lot where many of my men were standing and called them all around.

"They only have room for the family to come on the tours and so I want ten of you to stay for afterwards and the rest can go do what you want. Drop off the rental cars to the airport by 16:00. The ship leaves at 17:30 and you have to have plenty of time to get to the port and catch a tram. I assigned my men: Ram - Stephanie, Ian – both grandmothers, Pace - Leyla, Dillion - Angelia, Manuel - Isabella, Zero – Mama, Zip - Oshanna, Eddie – Rachel and Julie, meet back here in about an hour. You're on call till the women are back on the ship. Questions?" There were no questions.

"Dismissed."

I went back over to the family where they were being split in two and dragged Stephanie over to the group Julie was in led by Carol.

"Mr. Manoso," Carol addressed me, "I had you in the other group."

"Well, Julie there," I pointed, "is my daughter and I would like to be in the group with her." Besides I am paying you thousands of dollars for this I can be in whatever group I want, I thought to myself.

Carol led the group down to the rocks by the seashore where there was a big hole filled with sea water, put her headset on and began speaking into the mic.

"Hi, I'm Carol, I'm the owner of Ocean Rider Seahorse Farm. I started this project back in 2007 because there was a problem with the seahorses around the world. Seahorses in the pet trade were in high demand and they were taking a million seahorses a year out of the wild to meet this demand. But wild seahorses don't do well in captivity. Many of them die after just a year or two. So the demand only increases because people are constantly replacing them.

I knew that we could breed seahorses that do better in captivity, are friendlier and survive longer. A healthy seahorse can live up to fifteen or so years in the wild and we wanted our seahorses to live at least that long. Plus we domesticated them, we got rid of disease, got them to eat a wider variety of food, and we got them to be happy. That number of a million went down to twenty thousand a year now because we provide a better animal that lives longer and is healthier so people prefer our animals over others. We breed over thirty different species here and can provide enough animals to meet the global demand for pets."

She continued explaining, "We spent $20,000 to dig this deep hole, eight feet below low tide, into the rock so that we could get these little red shrimp called opae ula that seahorses like to eat. The shrimp are high in DHA and EPA long chain fatty acids. These acids when fed to most animals, including seahorses, trigger reproduction."

She set down the speaker and got a net on a long pole and swished it around in the water and came up with a scoopful of these little red things. I was standing in the back of the group so I couldn't see well, but I could see that there were little tiny red creatures in the net. "These little shrimp are part of the secret to our success. We feed them to the seahorses and they breed we take them away and they stop. We feed them to our babies and they grow strong and healthy."

When she was done she led us back up the way back around to another building. There was a line of sinks and everyone had to wash their hands and arms up to their elbows

This was their hatchery and there were twenty or more fifty gallon blue barrels that all had pipes leading in and out of them. You could smell the salt water and hear the water running as it was pumped in and out of the tanks. She explained that this was where all the babies are kept till they are big enough to be sold.

After looking in various barrels she led us around to the wall where there were fifteen more fifty gallon barrels lined up against the wall. These were some of their side projects they were getting into breeding some rarer fish that are also in demand. She walked us through the area of white round tanks where they breed their own food like phytoplankton and brine shrimp. Then she walked us to an area of much larger round blue tanks covered with black tarps that I would guess are several hundred gallons.

She showed us some juveniles and explained that they grow slowly and take a year and a half to get to market. After the juveniles she showed us fully grown seahorses and once the lid was off they all started coming to the surface looking for food. She explained that when people order seahorses they often request certain colors and patterns and because they breed so many they are able to fill these requests.

She showed us a multi-tank set up that is called a saltwater aquaponic system. There they grow saltwater tilapia and use them to produce sea asparagus. It is an affordable and sustainable system. Sea asparagus is a new micro-green that has all the good stuff of green food but also has fatty acids. The system is powered by the sun and she talked about sharing this technology with other developing nations that are starting to eat their reefs because this provides meats and greens and they can even grow enough to sell and they don't need an electrical grid to plug into. I asked her several questions because in the face of some kind of disaster and global food crisis this is the kind of setup I could put on the roof of the building and feed my men and have safe sustainable food. She explained that you could use it to grow any kind of food, that you can use fresh water tilapia and the fish produce the phosphates to support a whole garden with no pesticides. I would have to talk to Louis about this.

She took us to some huge, probably thousand gallon, round black tanks where they grow their own mesocosm system. There they feed a lot of microplankton to the system and those start to grow and some of the more delicate species of seahorses live in them and graze off the bottom. She showed us some huge ten foot tall, twenty feet across tanks where they are trying to breed other reef fish. She explains about the millions of reef fish taken off the Hawaiian and Australian reefs every year and that the reefs can't sustain the demand. But if they can become successful at breeding them and domesticating them they can help save the reefs and provide consumers with a better healthier animal that survives better in home tanks.

She showed us some smaller round white tanks, two and a half feet across and four feet tall, that are part of their school education project. Kids come out with school groups and get to pick out their own seahorses, name them and paint their own coral. Then they come back once a week to clean out the tanks and feed their seahorses.

She took us around to the front and told us this is where tours normally start, but since there were two other tours going right now she had showed us all this other stuff in the back first. She showed us a huge tank full of little floating shrimp that we may have raised as kids called sea monkeys, also known as brine shrimp. She showed us a jar of the dried eggs and explained how they grow their own shrimp here for the baby seahorses and how the shrimp will eat anything so they learned to feed the shrimp all the phytonutrients that seahorses need so the seahorses grow strong and healthy.

Then she took us to bins where they grow seaweed and encouraged everyone to eat some. She explained that seaweed is very healthy and very economical and will save us from radiation coming out of Japan. Julie took some but made a face. Then she took some out of a second barrel and I could see her chewing it. I just had a seaweed salad yesterday so I didn't feel the need to try some again. As a group they discussed how the first barrel was greener but kinda slimy and they didn't like the texture. The second barrel was crunchier kinda like sprouts and everyone liked it better. She offered water for those that needed it because seaweed is rather salty.

She discussed how healthy it is for you and that there are lower cancer rates among people who live near the sea and eat it. She took us back to some tanks of seahorses. She handed Julie and Becky each a small container of frozen shrimp that she added water to and asked them to shake them until they were not so frozen. She explained that they had to teach seahorses to be not just hunters but scavengers to extend their lives, but they wouldn't eat the frozen shrimp. She caused the group to laugh when she introduced a seahorse they named Mikie because Mikie liked the frozen shrimp and other seahorses saw him eating the frozen shrimp and they would then try and eat the frozen shrimp. Over the course of a year they moved Mikie from tank to tank and let him teach the other seahorses to eat frozen shrimp. Then they had a discovery. Once the new babies were born to seahorses who would eat the frozen shrimp they didn't have to be taught. They would automatically eat the frozen shrimp.

Then she opened the top to two different tanks and had the girls dump their frozen shrimp into each tank and we watched the seahorses race to eat them. There was still a big chunk of frozen shrimp and it took a few moments but the seahorses found it and started picking it apart.

They had one other trait to overcome to domesticate seahorses. Seahorses want to mate for life and are often taken off the reefs in pairs because mated pairs live longer. But in a huge tank of seahorses it is hard to identify the specific pairs and make sure you get the right mate. So they worked on breeding them in big groups and soon enough they were no longer monogamists. They would mate with other seahorses and now they are still sold in pairs but the pairs aren't life long pairs, they can be mixed and matched and they will still bond and mate with each other.

She thanked us for coming and explained how they started this business on their life savings of $50,000 and started selling the seahorses and pumping the profits back into the business. She explained that all the money from the tours goes back into their breeding programs that she has shown us.

Then she showed us their leafy dragons breeding program. She explained that the problems with leafy sea dragons is that they don't breed till they are about five years old and they don't survive in captivity well. In fact most don't live two years. They are in very high demand by aquariums all over the world who want them because they are so beautiful. Because they are endangered there was only one way to get them. One man in Australia has the only permit in the world to take one pregnant male off the reef every year. He could take the babies when they hatched and sell them but the male had to be returned to the reef.

They cost about $10,000 each once you include shipping and there are only about fifty to sixty born each year. She tried to get this man to sell to her but he refused to even sell her one. Then six months later he had four baby dragons that the deal fell through on and he wanted to get rid of them. So she got those four baby dragons. They found out quickly that the dragons loved the little red shrimp from the hole and that is what they began to feed them exclusively.

The dragons grew and grew and survived. When they got to be five years old the females began to produce eggs but they had problems transferring the eggs to the males. Finally they got deeper tanks and the next year the females started getting the eggs to the males and they hatched the first ever sea dragons in captivity. Now the dragons have been producing babies for three years and they have finally started selling them at two years old because they are so much in demand, but they are trying to get enough stock to have them be mostly full grown and eat a greater variety of things before they sell them so hopefully they will live longer in captivity. In the wild they will live at least fifteen years and she wants to be breeding sea dragons that live longer in captivity.

We walked by two tanks of sea dragons that were juveniles and smaller than the breeding ones she had shown us when we were in the back. She made sure everyone's hands were still clean and took us to two tanks where we could "hold" seahorses. To "catch" a seahorse you held both hands in the tank with the tips of your fingers from each hand touching but spread wide so you were a bunch of little round tubes for them to grab hold of. I was just going to watch but Stephanie grabbed my hands and dragged me to the barrel. Julie was across the barrel from me so I stuck my hands in and within a few minutes a large seahorse came and wrapped around my finger. Julie squealed because she had three wrapped around her fingers.

"Dad I want some. This is what I want for my birthday I want some seahorses."

"Julie they are a lot of work. You have to feed them and take care of them and clean their tank every week."

"Dad I can do that. I'm gonna be 13 and I'm responsible now. Please Dad. You know I can do this."

"Well your mother has to agree. I can't say if you can have a pet or not but if she agrees we will see."

She shrieked. "Yes" and stood there entranced at the little creatures clinging to her fingers.

After several minutes Carol started walking around carefully getting the seahorses off of us and I had to ask her.

"My daughter says she wants some. Are these animals hearty enough for a thirteen year old to take care of?"

"Well I would have to say it depends on the thirteen year old. My kids are younger but they are responsible enough to take care of a pair of seahorses. Of course they have been around them their whole lives."

"Over all she is a responsible kid. She is in soccer and plays flute and babysits her brother and sister. What if I paid for her to come out here for a week this summer? Could you teach her how to take care of them? Put her to work on the farm so she knows how much work it really takes?"

"I've never done that before, I would have to talk that over with my husband but I'm willing to consider it. These animals are not cheap and most parents are not going to spend this much money on something so delicate for their children. You have to think long term. They can live ten to fifteen years, who is going to take care of them when the kid goes off to college?"

"If they live that long and her brother and sister don't want them I will be glad to take them off her hands. In fact I have a man who takes care of my building I'm thinking of sending him out here to learn how to farm with tilapia."

"Oh you don't need to send him out here. You can find the plans for such set ups online."

"Probably, but I think seeing it in person is inspiring and he and his wife deserve a vacation anyway. They could just spend one day of their vacation here learning, then I can write the whole thing off as a business expense."

"I'll be glad to show him if he comes out here."

I stuck out my hand. "Carol thank you for seeing us today and giving us a personal tour. My family and I appreciate it."

"Thank you for your generous donation. We need some new tanks for our tropical fish expansion and this will help buy some more."

"How much do you need?"

"Well ultimately about $50,000, but we are going to do the expansion in phases."

"Can you use the money from your non-profit towards this project?"

"Yes that is where half of the money is coming from."

"Well I'll have my travel assistant call you. I'll be glad to donate another $10,000, especially if I can use it as a write off."

"Follow me back to the giftshop and I'll get you that information." She spoke louder to the group. "Everyone follow me back to the giftshop and we'll wrap this up."

Back inside the giftshop the teen girls, knowing I would buy them what they wanted, were shopping. Stephanie got a t-shirt and hat that both said Ocean Rider Sea Horse Farm. Julie got a sea dragon notebook, sea horse pen and a sea horse crossing sign. Each of the girls got stuffed sea horses, Julie got a male one with three little babies in its pouch. When I didn't stop them there they got magnets and stickers. Knowing we were just going back to the ship I didn't really care what they bought.

Then Stephanie added a cloth shopping bag and I told Carol, who was busy ringing things up as they piled it by the register, to ring up several more shopping bags that we would take everything in them. Julie asked me if Freddie could get something and, realizing the boys hadn't gotten anything yet and weren't use to shopping with me, I announced that everyone could get whatever they wanted, they just had to carry it back to the ship. Suddenly it was like a feeding frenzy hit and the pile on the counter grew.

I stopped the carnage and told everyone to get all their stuff off the counter, that we would ring everyone up one at a time. The pile dissipated just as quickly and everyone was walking around with a hand full of things.

"Carol. You have so many plushies and stuff but only one t-shirt. I would like for you to take some of the money I have donated and make some different shirts to sell. I know if you had cooler, more colorful t-shirts all the kids would want one."

"I've looked at it before but I would need to hire an artist to draw some ideas and then have a screen made for each shirt."

"Add some money to my order. $500.00 should get you started. I'd like to see them on your website later this summer. T-shirts are a good moneymaker and free advertisement. Honestly keep the logo you have and just put a picture of seahorses on the back or some leafy sea dragons. You would sell a ton of them."

"Well I can't promise this summer but I will get some good designs and have them made. Why are you doing all this?" She asked while the girls were looking at earrings and the boys were picking out magnets.

"Honestly I have come into some money and want to spend it on worthwhile things. Your company is making money and helping to save the planet. Not many people make it their life's work to make the planet a better place today and for our kids in the years to come. I want to support that and buying things for my family makes them happy. I am working on being their favorite uncle and this will help." I told her.

"Ok," I announced, "one at a time come up to the register and let Carol ring you up." I told them.

Stephanie was waiting in the back and I walked over to her and took her in my arms.

"Babe, did you get everything you wanted? Do you want some earrings or a seahorse pen?"

"Nope just this. I really like the hat. It is better than the black one you got for me and I got a stuffed seahorse and earrings for Mary Alice."

"Yes I like the hat better too." The line was moving along and suddenly Angelia was there buying plushies for her kids and a video about a day in the life of sea horses. I noticed that Isabella was not around and I went outside where they were loading up in the SUV.

"Isabella, I'm buying stuffed animals and seahorse knick knacks for all the kids. Why don't you bring your little ones inside and let them pick something out?"

She and Diego got their kids back out and brought them inside. I notice my mama had a t-shirt too and my _abuela's_ were looking at the earrings. When all was said and done Stephanie went up to the register last and gasped and went to go put her t-shirt back.

"What's wrong babe?"

"It's up to $1,756.32. That's too expensive I don't need these." She said as she folded the t-shirt up and put it back on the shelf. I picked the t-shirt back up and whispered to her.

"Babe I threw in five hundred dollars as a donation and I have plenty of money now. If you want the t-shirt let me buy you the t-shirt but definitely get the hat and the stuff for Mary Alice. It's for a good cause, all the money goes back into the business and saving the reefs of the world is a good business." I said handing them back to her.

"Ok" She said taking them back from me.

When all was said and done I gathered my family back out into the parking lot.

"We just have time to get to the airport and turn our vehicles in. But I have a plan, why doesn't everyone go to the port and I will have my men take care of the vehicles for you, that way you aren't juggling luggage and kids." Even as I said it I don't know why I hadn't thought of it before. I was just thinking since they were driving they could drive to the airport but this made much more sense and is safer. And it would get everyone back onboard the ship faster. I had my men follow us back to the port.

The boats had two trams that they called tender boats that ran one way each half hour so we had a thirty minute wait before they got there and there was a line of passengers that had gotten off the boat in Kona and were waiting to get back on. Fortunately the tender held over seventy five passengers and we all made it on the next one.

It was past 17:00 when we finally got onboard. The ship is a ways out in the port and the tender moved very slowly. I was hoping all my men would be able to catch the last tender that we passed headed to port, halfway out to the ship. We all had just enough time to get to our rooms, unload our luggage and all our stuff then head to the dining room for dinner. We didn't have our own dining room on this ship but one whole corner of the dining room was taken up by large round tables full of my family and my men. We were sitting at a table with Rachel, Ron and the kids. While we ate we talked.

"Babe we never discussed what you wanted to do for the next two days."

"What is there to do?" She asked.

"I sent you a text."

"No, I never got a text." She pulled out her phone and started scrolling through it. "Oh you did send me two texts yesterday. Why didn't you tell me?"

"I just sent it to everyone. I didn't think about discussing it with you."

"Well I would like to see part of the town and island and do some shopping. I have made a list of people I need to buy gifts for and I haven't really started yet. I want to get something for my parents, grandma, Lula, Connie and something for some of your family. Your mom has been so nice to me."

"Babe you don't need to buy my mother anything."

"Yes Carlos I do. She has been so nice to me and working with her on the wedding is so much better than working on it with my mother. In fact she has told me she will work with my mother so I don't have to. That alone means I need to get her something. Then there is Val and her kids."

"We were at the Seahorse farm today. You could have gotten them all something there."

"Well I loved the seahorses, they were amazing and I got stuff for Mary Alice but I didn't think the other two would appreciate seahorses like Julie does." She nodded her head in Julie's direction. "Rachel what are you guys planning on doing tomorrow?"

"Well once we get a car we are going to go to Wailua Falls, then Julie and Freddie have surfing lessons at 11:00 and we are going to hang out on the beach for a little while. Eat some fabulous Hawaiian food and do a little shopping. On Friday we are taking the half day kayaking excursion to Secret Falls and we are still discussing it but I think we are going to go on a helicopter ride just for the fun of it. That or go snorkeling."

Stephanie stared at the list on the phone. "I'd like to see the waterfalls and some of the island. The Kilohana Plantation sounds interesting. Of course you know me anything with food and shopping will make me happy. I would like to go snorkeling here in Hawaii, that would be beautiful."

"Babe have you ever gone ziplining?"

"No"

"Let's add ziplining to the list. It is a lot of fun."

"Yeah but you have to hike a bunch and climb a bunch."

"Not so much hiking, but you do have to get up high so you can zipline down to the ground."

"Isn't it dangerous?"

"No it is perfectly safe. They put you in a harness with a helmet and hundreds of people do it every day. It is like rollercoasters. Safe when done right."

"Ok I'll try it."

"Yeah Mom, ziplining sounds like fun." Julie said.

"Especially if it is like roller coasters." I interjected knowing how much Julie likes rollercoasters.

"Thank you Carlos," Rachel whispered across the table. "I may not have, on purpose, mentioned ziplining to the kids when I read them the list."

"It's perfectly safe Rachel or I wouldn't take Stephanie to do it. I would be glad to take Julie and Freddie and Ron if you don't want to go."

"No I'll go and stay with Cassie." Rachel huffed.

"Cassie can come too. I've seen kids smaller than her do it and they loved it. Kids love ziplining because they don't have as many fears as adults." I explained.

"Fine we'll all go. We can do it tomorrow afternoon after the beach and lunch." Rachel said.

"Great I'll text Skylar." I told her.

"No I'll text her. She has been texting on and off all day with the plans for our trip." Rachel explained.

"Babe I also sent you the list of things to do in Oahu on Saturday. I have a special morning activity planned but then you can plan the rest of the day."

I had wondered earlier why I hadn't heard from Skylar all day. I knew she had everyone's information including their fake names and phone numbers but it never dawned on me that she was contacting everyone individually to make plans for the next several days.

"That's great." I agreed and texted Skylar what Stephanie and I wanted to do while in Nawiliwili. I realized that with my current plan of only working eight men a day that all of dayshift would have one day free on the Island. I made final assignments for the next three days only assigning eight men per day to be working, giving them all two days off in Hawaii, so they could make plans too. I did the same for nightshift only working three men each night and giving them all two days off. I texted them the list of activities and Skylar's number. Hoping she didn't get mad at me for unleashing all my men on her.

During dinner I thought about my men more and texted all of them that after Sunday they would all get a week off with pay and that every man would be getting a ten thousand dollar bonus. Also if they wanted to stay in Hawaii for their week off they were welcome to. I texted them Skylar's information so she could help book them for all their needs. It only took a few minutes for my men to look up from their phones and cheer or look at me and give me a thumbs up.

Then I texted Skylar.

' _I'm working you too hard and I have done something very bad.'_

' _Do you need to be spanked? Is it worse than what you did over the weekend?"_

" _What I did over the weekend was very, very good. But this is bad for you. I gave my men several days off here in Hawaii and all of next week and then gave them your number.'_

' _You do realize I'm a professional travel agent? This is what I do for a living.'_

' _Yes but I have thirty three men on this trip, who are all going to bug you.'_

' _I don't mind as long as you don't mind the fees. I'm still charging you for all my work.'_

' _Charge away sweetheart. I'm good for it.'_

' _I'm assuming that you are at dinner again with your real sweetheart and that's why you aren't calling?'_

' _Bingo'_

' _Really soon I want to meet her. She must be something really special.'_

' _She is precious to me.'_

' _Well you'd better let her know that and you better treat her right! Treat her as good as you treat me and you'll do okay. Your men are texting me now, got to get to work.'_

' _Thank you my most perfect, amazing travel agent you make this so easy for me.'_

' _Anytime Ranger.'_

After dinner Steph took me to a stage show in a half-full, medium sized auditorium that rotated shows every night and tonight was a luau display. My parents were all ready here with my _abuelas_ sitting several rows up and Leyla and Richard came in behind us and sat two rows back.

The show started out with sixteen dancers in traditional luau attire, long grass skirts, skimpy tops. They danced around for a while with men that had shorter grass skirts and grass around their biceps and calves. The women did a solo dance, then the men did a solo dance. While one single woman did a slow dance the rest of the performers did a quick costume change. Then more dancing and dancing and as a red blooded male after the first dance I was done. You see all those swinging hips and you know a way to make hips swing that is much more pleasurable and you want to get to it.

On and on, I guess it was beautiful and I'm sure it was traditional but I was already hard and thinking about Stephanie. Finally I plucked her out of her seat and sat her on my lap and rubbed against her. She squeaked when I grabbed her and put her arm out to try to push me away.

"Ranger" she tried to hiss quietly.

"I need you, Babe."

"The shows not over."

"Do we have to wait for the show to get over. The whole thing is going to be more of this with more costume changes and then more of this." I told her waving my arm at the stage.

"But I like this and I really like looking at all the half dressed hot men who know how to shake it." She giggled quietly.

"Babe I'll be your half dressed man and I'll shake it for you where you will really like it."

"In a grass skirt?"

"Babe I'll get a grass skirt and shake it for you but no pictures."

"I'll bet these guys will let me take their picture."

"I'm sure they will, but they are actors trying to get their face and name out there. I'm in the security business trying to keep my anonymity."

"Ok fine, you get a grass skirt and I will leave and let you dance for me."

With out another word I lifted her up off my lap, grabbed her hand and drug her to the back and out the door. I took her out in the hallway and walked down the length of the auditorium and started looking for a door. Fifteen more feet down there was an unmarked door and I pulled it open. Bingo, the backstage. I dragged her along behind me till I saw a door marked dressing room.

I walked in and to my dismay there were several women in there dressing and doing make up. I apologized and backed out and went to the next door. It was unmarked and turned out to be a room full of props. I looked around hopefully for a few moments but there were no costumes in there. In the next door I struck gold, rows and rows of costumes and right up front were several racks of hula costumes. I grabbed one off a half empty rack and held it up to me, sure enough it was a male costume. I worked my way down to the other end of the rack and the grass skirts here were longer. Maybe if I was lucky I could get her to put one on for me. To hell with luck, I was a persuasive bastard and I would convince her.

She was still standing out in the hallway and I walked out tucking them under my arm.

"Come on Babe."

"You're not just going to take those are you?"

"They have plenty of them they will never miss it." I grabbed her hand again and pulled her along behind me.

As I passed the door marked dressing room a woman stepped out into our path. I paused to see which way she was going to go and she turned to look at me.

"You can't be backstage." She said.

"Sorry, we got lost looking for the bathroom. Which way is it again?"

"Go back out to the hallway and you have to go all the way down to the back of the theaters. There are bathrooms outside the theaters."

"Thanks I said as I pulled Stephanie along my treasures tucked under my arm and draping down past my waist.

"Wait a minute. I know what you're doing. You got all hot and bothered by the hula dancing and now you are going to go do some private hula dancing of your own."

If she was a man I would just offer her money but women tend to get more offended by such things so I knew tact and sweet talking was my best way out of this. I stopped in my tracks, dropped Stephanie's arm and gave her my two hundred watt smile.

"You caught us. Newly wed and all that. Just wanted to try something new."

"Well you can't just sneak in here stealing costumes. We need those."

"I'm sorry," I said, "We'll just borrow them and bring them back in the morning."

"After what you are going to do with them I don't know that we will want them back."

"So do they sell costumes like these in the gift shop? I would gladly buy a set."

"No and I doubt you could afford them. These are professional costumes made to be worn hundreds of times. Not some cheap, one night of the year Halloween costumes."

"What's wrong with Halloween costumes?" Stephanie demanded.

"Nothing is wrong with them. I wasn't making myself clear. These are expensive outfits made to be worn over and over. You can't afford them."

"Fine" I told her. "I'll pay you double what they are worth. You can give half to your boss to buy more and keep half for yourself."

"Ok $100," She demanded with a gleam in her eye that said I would refuse.

"$100?" I clarified, "for both costumes?"

"$100"

"Fine" I told her again and pulled out my wallet. I pulled out a hundred dollar bill and tried to hand it to her but even in the dim lighting she had gotten a look at the thick wad in my wallet and she wasn't reaching for the money.

"$100 each" She raised it up.

"And that's it, $100 each?" I was firm and starting to give her a menacing glare.

"Yes, $100 each." She said in agreement. I pulled out a second bill and handed them to her.

"Thanks," She said cheekily, "Don't wear them outside your cabin. You go walking around the ship in them and you'll get stopped for indecent exposure." She smirked and disappeared back into the dressing room.

I grabbed Stephanie's hand again and led her back out into the hallway. I was a man on a mission and nothing was going to slow me from my destination. We got back to our room quickly without any additional interruptions.

"Babe you get dressed out here." I said laying her outfit on the bed. I headed into the bathroom and as soon as I got the door closed and saw the less than a foot and a half of room that I had to dress in, I knew this was a bad idea. Well it was going to be slightly difficult in an area so small I could barely turn around, but I was determined to make it work and have a grand entrance. I put the toilet seat down and laid out my costume on top of it. Then I shimmied out of my clothes dropping them on the floor and picked up the skirt to investigate. It velcroid in the back and that's all there was to it. I slipped it on and found with my skinny waist it sat low on my hips. With it were four, six inch grass elastic bands that went around my biceps and calves. A multi color flower lei went around my neck. Then there was one scrap of cloth left, a little baggy skin-colored cloth that tied on both sides around the waist and I threw it away from myself realizing this was what the men wore under their grass skirts.

I looked at myself in the mirror and thought I looked much better than all of the men on that stage. None of them had the muscle definition I had in my chest and arms and none of them were cut like me. I flexed in the mirror and was impressed at how good I looked in this costume. I have never been one to dress up for sex, dress the woman up in something I could take off yes, but never myself. I wondered what she would think.

Before I went out there I shook my hips a few times. This was harder than it looked to go fast and it had an expected response of driving more blood to my already hard manhood which stuck out through the grass skirt. I pushed it down a little bit not wanting it to make its appearance just yet. Then I opened the door stepped out and struck a pose watching her to see what she thought. She gasped and smiled big.

"You look better than any man out there. You know that?"

Yes I knew I looked good and I smiled at her. She looked edible herself. I could imagine climbing under her grass skirt and licking her while she shook her hips and my smile grew wider. She came over and took my hand and led me to the bottom of the bed. Then she climbed on the bed, put her back to the headboard and waited.

"I need music." I said. She reached over to the clock radio and switched it on. It blasted out rock. She started pushing buttons on it and it was all rock and pop. Finally she dialed in the station we had been listening to in the car and looked at me expectantly.

I started slow. Anyone who can dance the salsa or bachata knows how to swing their hips. I just had to do it a little faster. I was going to give her five minutes of this then have her dance for me. I swung my hips back and forth seductively and waved my arms in the air and she laughed.

"No you're doing it wrong." She explained. "Your arms go out in waves like this." She held her arms up and did a little movement. Fine if she wanted to get picky. I did the arm movement and flicked my hips and she smiled.

"Better than the stage show?" I asked.

"You look delicious." She said. I hoped this was turning her on as much as it was me because I was ready for her and to prove it my cock was inching out of my costume again. I waved my arms a few more times, slowly and suggestively swished my hips back and forth as I lowered my body down and she smiled. Then I thrust my hips out several times and my manhood was totally standing at attention outside of my grass skirt and she gasped and licked her lips.

I slowly crawled up the bed to her and kissed her on the lips then I delved into her mouth and as always, she is so sweet. I grabbed her legs and pulled her down underneath me. Laid down on top of her, kissed her like I meant business and started thrusting against her core wondering if she was wearing underwear under her skirt and how fast I could get her naked. A minute or so into my musings she was pushing against my chest.

"Not so fast, caveman. You were supposed to dance for me."

"I did dance." I whispered against her lips.

"Not even one whole song." She admonished.

"Now I want to dance with you." I said. "The horizonal hula."

"We have all night for the horizontal hula. I want to see you in that costume more. You have to dance at least two or three songs for me. That hula show would have gone on for at least another hour and besides," she smiled at me, "you look really hot."

"Fine" I said dismissively as I rolled off her. I got the costumes, I danced for her, what exactly did she want? The song that was playing was a little faster beat and I threw my arms up in the air like the men had done at the start of their dance and acted like I had a spear and shield. Stomping my feet and jumping back and forth like they had done. I turned around in a circle feeling more than a little ridiculous and very turned on. Then I went back to slower sensual hip movements and watched as she tried to use her phone to take a discrete picture of me. I wasn't going to say anything. I would just pretend that I didn't see her and delete it later off of her phone.

Finally the song ended and a commercial started and I climbed back on the bed predatory like I was stalking her, kissed her for several long minutes then I grabbed both her hands and drug her to the bottom of the bed. I patted her ass and said "Your turn Babe."

I swung myself around to put my back against the headboard and watch.

"I never said I was going to dance. This was about you making up for me missing the luau performance. You're lucky I even put on the costume." She waved an arm down at her outfit.

"Babe you look beautiful. Better than any woman up on that stage. What are you wearing underneath that skirt?"

She pulled the sides of the grass skirt apart to show me some blue underwear.

"Its more fun if you take them off." I said as I waved to my erection sticking out from under my skirt.

"You may have more fun poking out but I don't think that works the same for women."

"Just try it. Go in the bathroom and take them off." I encouraged. She looked doubtful at me but went into the bathroom.

"Carlos you left your clothes in here on the floor." She sounded shocked as she closed the door behind herself.

"I'll get them later." I called to her through the door.

Two minutes later she was back smiling shyly at me. The music was back on and I waved at the bottom of the bed for her to proceed. She walked over to her bags and quickly tucked her panties into a side pocket. Then walked down to the bottom of the bed and started to do a slow hula dance. She gave a slow wiggle of her hips while she undulated her arms first to the right and then to the left. She waggled her hip left and right then stepped left and did a little wiggle then stepped right and did a little wiggle. She had obviously never learned this or belly dancing, as when her hip went one way her opposite shoulder and boob went the other. She was shaking top and bottom and it was adorable and a turn on.

I did something I had never done in front of her before, I spread the grass skirt on either side of my erection and slowly stroked myself up and down. She stopped moving, arms in the air and just watched me. I gave myself another slow stroke and she licked her lips. Then she did the unexpected and began crawling up the bed to me. Halfway up the bed she laid down, ending with her mouth at my dick. I let go and she wrapped her tender hand around my rigid form and licked the precum that had formed off the tip.

She sucked my hard length down and I admired how terribly aggressive she was becoming again with her wonderous mouth. She had started being the aggressor more the last two days we were in Hawaii last time and being back seemed to be having the same affect again. She was delicately working my bulging head and then started giving me long sensual licks from the base to the top that was heating up my blood. Actually it was zinging up my spine and starting a fire burning in my belly. She took my tightening balls in her sensuous mouth and licked and sucked for long moments while she gave long hard strokes to my solid length.

She turned her full attentions back to my stiff dick and sucked me deep and hard while stroking me with her hand and I felt the flames building up in my shaft and filling my belly with the need to explode. I wondered if she meant to get me off or if she was just priming my everlasting pump. Then I decided I was thinking too much and just went back to enjoying the molten sensations building between my legs. Every suck sent a ripple of hot warmth up my belly and down my spine to my balls that were buzzing with the overwhelming sensations. I could feel the intense pleasurable pressure building with every suck and stroke.

I wasn't sure if she was just trying to prime me or actually get me off. She had never given me a blowjob before and if she really wanted to I was going to let her. She looked so hot with her little bare butt peeking out from under her grass skirt and even my grass skirt spread out on either side of her was turning me on. Suddenly she pressed her thumb into the base of my dick and I felt my dick filling up getting even harder than before, ready now to explode in her hot mouth.

"Babe, I'm going to cum." I thought she deserved a warning and if that wasn't her intent I wanted to let her know. She squeezed my dick tighter, sucked a little harder and tugged with more force, sending me over the edge and I let go. Suddenly I was spurting into her mouth over and over and over and she was swallowing me down as she continued to stroke. When I was done she looked at me with a huge smile and sense of wonder on her face.

"Wow" she said as she pulled herself to a sitting position. "I've always wanted to do that."

She reached up and kissed me deeply and I could taste myself on her. It was such a turn on that my woman had blown me. Then she broke the kiss and spread her skirt and the next thing I knew she was impaling herself on my half rigid manhood, the hot pressure inside her making me harder again.

"You know most men can't keep it up after a blow job. In fact for most men it means the night is over." I told her.

She smiled at me. "Lucky I'm not with most men."

She was so wet and I was so hard, I let her ungulate her hips up and down, riding me with gusto as her scorching drenching core held me tight with-in her. I guess sucking me was a turn on for her that or my dancing really did it for her. Her small hands poised on my wide shoulders gripping each time she slid up my hard throbbing length and down it was staggeringly pleasurable. The heat was building again in my belly and swarming intense pleasure through my veins. I kept kissing her and every time I tasted myself on her sweet lips I swear I got a little harder.

So she rode me face to face, chest to breasts. I reached up and stroked her breasts, then tugged on her nipples and she gasped sliding back down hard on my aching firmness. Her eyes were half closed in passion as she picked up the pace driving electrifying sensations down my length and causing my balls to contract with desire. She flushed with need, sped up, and minutes later was crying out and collapsing against my chest.

I divested us of our outfits, flinging both skirts to the floor and climbed back on top of her kissing, licking and sucking till I got to my ultimate goal between her long legs. I was going to return the favor and spent long moments licking and sucking at her wonderfully responsive, portal of passion. Her fingers threaded through my hair encouraging and guiding then fervently holding me to her as if my tongue would suddenly vanish.

"Oh God Caarrlooosss," she cried as she arched into my mouth and I got my sweet reward as she came, gushing her flavorful syrup onto my lips. I licked her velvety sweetness that was hot, wet and swollen for me still. Several minutes later she had come down off her cloud and was calling for me to enter her.

"Hold onto me Babe," I said huskily and I climbed back up her exquisite body kissing and licking at overheated, tenderized quivering flesh as I went. I climbed over her and drove into her tight silky core. I took my time moving in long slow hard strokes running the length of my hard throbbing cock, murmuring tender love words as I held her soft frame tightly to me feeling her body run hot beneath my ministrations.

"Carlos more." She whispered quietly entreating with her voice while her feverish body arched and lifted against me, her heels digging into the bed, her arms wrapping around my back, clutching me close and I tried to give her everything she was begging for. I lifted off her enough to get a better perch and intensified my driving down thrusts, testing the limits of her pleasure. I increased the pressure and her hands skimmed down my back to grasp my butt pulling me back to her on every powerful plunge into her abyss.

I took her pink lips and kissed her hot mouth diving into every sweet corner of it and we broke off panting as I went back to ravishing her. Her body becoming desperate now as I slid in and out of her hot slick core until her body was flushed pink and her breathy moans were driving me on. I pounded into her silky sweetness with a violent thrusting need I felt to the tips of my toes.

The catch in her voice and her body going rigid beneath me signaled her imminent release and I pumped into her almost violently, dark torrents of passion rushing through my body and I bowed tight, feeling her quivering ripples inside, I let go and discharged myself into her depths. Filling her up as she moaned, pouring my throbbing orgasm deep within her. I collapsed on top of her with the intensity of my release and I marveled at how it could get better and better every time I had her.

I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her close, feeling as if we had once again become one. I couldn't get enough of her and my arms, like steel bands, wrapped around her thin frame and pulled her close.

"I love you," came her faint slurred words from beneath me.

"Love you too Babe." Forever I thought again, knowing in that second that I would do whatever I had to do, take as many lives as were needed, to protect her; she was my world. I rolled onto my back pulling her with me and she took up her usual sleeping position, with her spread across me as her own personal body pillow. I realized as I fell asleep that we had done it again. No condom.

To be continued….

A/N: Thank you all for your reviews! They are all read and very much loved and appreciated! This chapter is dedicated to Ocean Rider Seahorse Farm that is a real place and really works hard to provide healthy seahorses for pets and save the reefs and the wild animals that live on them worldwide. Please read and review.

As always big THANK YOU to my beta Sassysaint you spur me on!

Second Big THANK YOU to my sister, Jonelle. Thank you for fixing all my many little mistakes.


	34. Chapter 34 Ziplineing Nawiliwili Kauai

Chapter 34 Ziplining, Waterfalls and Turtles in Nawiliwili, Kauai

 _I felt as if we had once again become one. I couldn't get enough of her and my arms, like steel bands, wrapped around her thin frame and pulled her close._

" _I love you," came her faint slurred words from beneath me._

" _Love you too Babe." Forever I thought again, knowing in that second that I would do whatever I had to do, take as many lives as were needed, to protect her; she was my world. I rolled onto my back and she took up her usual sleeping position, with her spread across me as her own personal body pillow, I realized as I fell asleep that we had done it again. No condom._

Thursday May 27 Nawiliwili, Kauai, HI 06:45

As I walked back to our room from the gym I walked along the deck and looked at the new island we were docked at. We had two more days on this ship and I wanted to make the most of it with Stephanie and Julie.

Before I left for the gym I had plugged Oshanna's phone in. It wouldn't give her a full charge but she would be more ready for the day. I was slightly more worried today that there might be a threat out there, lurking. I was going to do the unthinkable. I was going to give Oshanna her electronics back and tell her it is safe to post everything about where we were, just not the name of the ship we are on. Hopefully in the next two to three days it would flush out any more threats and if there was anyone left, they will try for the women again before we go back home.

Before waking her, I hacked into Stephanie's phone to delete the picture of me from last night. As I pulled it up I was surprised at how good I looked in the costume. I debated the fact that she would be mad that I hacked her phone and might even feel violated. Stephanie has always been quiet about her personal life. I would have a talk with her and if she could keep this picture private I would let her keep it.

As Stephanie got ready for the day, I gathered Oshanna's phone and computer up and prepared to take them to her. I texted Bones to monitor her account and notify me immediately if any of the suspicious fake accounts become active. I texted Tank and Skylar that the Alaskan assignment was over. That my man could finish out his cruise and fly home. It was some guy named John from the Boston office that had gotten to go and I hoped he was having a little fun on his trip. When Stephanie came out of the bathroom she saw the electronics sitting there next to me.

"Your guy in Alaska sent me pictures last night. I was going to post them this morning. I think a couple of her real friends are on her Twitter and Instagram accounts. They make comments like they really care and some little things about work and missing her."

"Yeah, I suspected she had some real friends following her too. I am going to give her the electronics back this morning and tell her she can post whatever she wants the rest of the trip. She just can't tell people which ship we are on."

I was laughing to myself as Stephanie hid behind her towel trying to slip her underwear on underneath it. Like I had never seen her naked. Once she got them on she faced the wall as she slipped on her bra. Then she laid out pink shorts for the day and her new seahorse t-shirt. Finally she dropped her towel and finished dressing while we talked.

"Isn't that dangerous? Bad people could find us again." Stephanie said worried.

"I would rather them find us here in Hawaii while my men are around. If anyone is still following her accounts she can lead them right to us."

"You are setting a trap." Stephanie said, light dawning in her eyes.

"I'm giving them three days to find us. Personally I don't think there is anyone left to come after us but I want to lay the bait out there before we leave the islands."

"Good thinking Batman." She said as she walked over to me and kissed me, deeply, with lots of tongue, like she meant it.

I pulled her between my legs. "We could be late for breakfast, we are not on a schedule this morning."

"No we have a lot to do. I want to see the island. How do you say the name for where we are?"

"Nawiliwili, Kauai."

"Nawiliwili. I sound like a whippoorwill." She laughed at herself.

"Come on Babe. The family is eating at the buffet on level 5 again." I took her hand and Oshanna's electronics and we walked out the door.

When we got to breakfast I made a big deal of walking over to Oshanna and presenting her in a half bow, her electronics in front of everyone.

"My dear sister, you are now free to post pictures and tweet to your heart's content." I told her. "But I want to ask you to do two things. One don't post the name of the ship we are on and two don't post when we are leaving. If anyone asks say you don't know when you are coming back home. Can you do that for me?"

She smiled so big I thought her face was going to crack. "Of course big brother. I can do that!" Then she hopped out of her seat and gave me a big hug. "Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. Now I can work on the wedding too!"

"And you can post your food and that we are on Nawiliwili. That's the first thing you need to do is tell all your friends you are actually in Hawaii not Alaska."

"Alaska?" She questioned.

"Yeah. I've had someone posting a false trail to Alaska. If I remember correctly we are on a cruise going up the Alaskan coast."

"Oh my God! I've got to tell them where we really are!" She gushed and went back to her seat, happily picking up her phone.

I followed Stephanie through the buffet and got fresh fruit, scrambled eggs and oatmeal. I was actually missing the turkey hash. I was going to see if Ella can figure out a low fat, high vegetable option for me. I would even make sure it is on her list of things to do on their trip to Hawaii.

Once again we sat with Julie and the Martine's for breakfast. Julie was talking excitedly about going surfing.

"Babe have you ever surfed?"

"No"

"Want to learn how?"

"Um, not really."

"Would you mind going to the beach with me and watching Julie and Frankie learn to surf?"

"Sure I don't mind going to the beach. I haven't had much time to work on my tan and I would like to look a little more tanned when we get back."

"What beach are you going to learn to surf?" I asked them.

"Kalapaki Beach 11:00 am lessons" Ron answered.

"Do you mind if we come and hang out with you guys?" I asked.

"Not at all. Stephanie and I can lay out while the kids surf and swim." Rachel said.

After breakfast I gathered all my men, day and nightshift.

"I have given Oshanna back her phone and told her to tweet our location. Hopefully if there are any men bent on causing my family harm left they will contact her and we will get a heads up. Bones is monitoring the fake profiles on her account for any action. So we may be alerted before there is any attack. Or they could just attack so be alert. I am keeping one person with each target and three men on at night. Marc you are also on with Stephanie today but get your own car and follow us. Skylar made each family's plans directly with them so I don't know where each family is going. Offer to go to get the rental cars for them but if they want to drive, everyone but Oshana and Julio can drive. Lester you are on Oshanna, Junior - Julie and Rachel, Vince both of my grandmas, Erik - Mama, Woody – Angelia, Hal – Leyla, Cal – Isabella. No gun belts, just be discretely armed. Today is 'at ease' guarding. Blend in, do what the family is doing. Questions?" My men just all nodded.

"Dismissed."

Once we were in our room I started to get ready for the day changing into board shorts instead of cargo's.

"Babe let's dress for the beach, wear tennis shoes but bring flip flops if you need them, would you please bring towels for us both and sunscreen." I told her.

"Why am I bringing your towel?"

I gave her a big smile. "Because you're the one with the big beach bag."

Ten minutes later we were leaving with Marc in tow. I got a red convertible Miata. Damn thing is small but it was the only convertible they had. It was faster than I expected and handled well on the curvy two lane highway. We drove up to the Wuilua Falls with the warm sun beaming down on us. Everything here was lush and green.

When we got to the falls we walked out to the lookout that showcased the double 80 foot waterfalls from across the way. These falls are famous as part of the opening scenes to the television show from the 80's, Fantasy Island. Down below us in the basin that the falls pour into were people swimming and playing in the water. We stood out under the hot sun that was beating down on us with just a few white puffy clouds in the sky.

"Babe come on. Let's go down there." I pointed.

"I don't know Carlos it looks rather steep."

"Come on Babe just a little hike." I took her hand and began to lead her down the fence to the parking area. There was a nice sign on the fence that said do not travel beyond this point, but we saw two people walk right past the sign around the gate and began descending to the bottom. I hadn't thought about it but if the falls were 80 feet we were descending about 80 feet, through winding tree branches and at one point there was a rope tacked to the rocks to hold onto while descending almost straight down for about 20 feet.

It was shady and a little cooler under the trees and out of the direct sunlight. I didn't even have to think about it. I grabbed the rope and started descending. Halfway down I looked up to see Stephanie crossing her arms and a "no way in hell am I going down that rope" look. I climbed back up to the top. There were two brightly colored birds that landed near Stephanie curious but as I got to the top they flew off calling a pretty trilling sound.

"Come on Babe. It's just a little decent. Did you see the two people in front of us just do it?"

"I don't know how to climb down a rope." She insisted.

"You just hold on and walk down facing the side."

"I'll go first and you come right behind me and I will help you." She looked unconvinced but I turned and went down about three feet.

"Come on." I encouraged. She turned around, grabbed hold of the rope and began to descend. I kept about two feet in front of her talking her down to the bottom. Five feet from the bottom she slipped and let go of the rope and hit me full force. I let go of the rope with one arm, wrapping it around her to hold her to me.

"Grab the rope Babe."

She reached out and grabbed it. With one arm around her I walked us the rest of the way down.

"Not so bad." I told her and she gave me a tentative smile. We finished the rest of the hike and came out to the gorgeous sight of the waterfalls, bright sunlight and Julie, Becky, Maggie and Cassie swimming in the water with Freddie, Ricky and Mikie. I was wearing my black swim trunks, my painted kiss and handprint vacation shirt and my black tennis shoes.

I quickly stripped down to my shorts and waded in to be close to Julie and the girls. Stephanie was reapplying her sunscreen then finally got in the water. It was kind of murky and had brown silt on the bottom but the water wasn't actually dirty. I even encouraged Marc to get in the water. I played with the girls for a short time then swam back and forth across the little grotto several times enjoying the sunlight streaming through the water as I went.

Then I swam to the falls with every intention of going under the falls but at 80 feet the turbulence went too deep and I swam around behind the falls where the turbulence pounded me into the smooth rock walls. I swam back, not wanting to be a bad example to the kids, especially the boys who were at the monkey see, monkey "I can do it too" age. After a little while everyone packed up to go to the beach and other outings.

We drove the winding roads. Wind whipping through our hair as the sun beat down on us, along to the beach and found the place where they taught surfing. I asked if they rented boards and they directed me down to a shack where they rented surfboards, body boards, paddleboards, kayaks and wind surfing equipment. I got myself a surfboard, some surf wax and a couple of chairs with umbrellas for the women.

"I didn't know you surf." Steph remarked as I stuck the surfboard in the sand and set up the lounge chairs for her and Rachel. We talked while I was rubbing sunscreen all across her bikini clad body. I loved having my hands all over her again.

"I'm a teenage boy that grew up in Miami." I explained.

"I've never seen you with a surfboard in New Jersey."

"When we go to Miami I have boards there, you will see me surf." I explained.

I have fun surfing, the water keeping me cool, while they taught the kids the basics of paddling, standing up, foot placement and how to control and steer the board. Then they brought them out to the water and started them close with the instructor holding the board till a good wave came then letting them go. Julie got up on her second try and I was proud of her.

I figure this summer I would come out and we could go surfing together. Several more times and she was standing up like a pro. By now the teachers, both Hawaiian guys in their early to mid-twenties, were up on the shore yelling out helpful suggestions. Freddie had gotten up several times by now too. I paddled over and started surfing closer to where they were.

"I didn't know you surfed Dad."

"Spent my teen years in Miami."

I got up on a wave Julie got up on the same wave but I was moving more right and she was angled more towards the shore so I cut back towards the shore and we rode the wave in together. It was a really shitty reason to come on this trip together but I have bonded with Julie in a way I never would have otherwise. I'm going to offer to take everybody on a trip this summer for the families that want to go. I don't know how many of the adults will be able to take time off so soon but I can offer. The surfing lessons lasted for an hour and after that much time in the water everyone was ready to get something to eat.

We went to Duke's Kauai, started by world famous surfer Duke Kahanamoku, who traveled the world teaching people to surf and about the Hawaiian lifestyle. We sat outside in the barefoot bar section where the tables were teak and the chairs were covered in bright Hawaiian patterns. They had a mix of Hawaiian and American dishes. The clouds had started building up in the sky looking like there could be an afternoon shower.

I got the Shrimp and Arugula salad with the fish of the day baked with a Macadamia Nut Crab Crusted Coating. Stephanie wanted the crispy chicken BLT but I talked her into something more Hawaiian (and less fried) and she got the Mac Nut Chicken Katsu. Rachel got the Fish Sandwich with their special mango relish. Ron and Freddie got the Mango BBQ Baby Back Ribs. Julie got the Korean Street Tacos and Cassie got a Cheddar Burger with Maui onion dressing. It seemed even the American dishes had a Hawaiian flare. By the time we were done eating it was time to head to ziplining. Rachel was still really worried about it, but I assured her it was going to be okay.

We got to Koloa Ziplining Tours fifteen minutes early, here the sun was bright but we had left the clouds down by the beach and they got us fitted with harnesses and colorful helmets that all said Koloa Ziplining on the back of them. Rachel wanted to sit the tour out but I asked her if she liked roller coasters and of course she said yes. I told her she would love it and she finally allowed them to hook her up with equipment. I wanted to go last on the first run, to see how everyone looked jumping off.

There were a couple of people in our group who had been ziplining before and they all jumped at the chance to go first. We could hear their screams of joy as they went down the line. Freddy volunteered to go next and jumped off willingly. Julie, not to be outdone, went next and Cassie seeing them having fun followed.

Rachel was petrified but was next in line, determined to follow her children and not leave them unsupervised on the other end. They hooked her up but when she got to the edge she just stood there.

"The first one is the hardest, Rachel. Then you realize how much fun it is and it is no problem after that." I told her.

"Yeah darling. You are going to love it. Didn't you hear the kids screaming, they loved it." Ron encouraged.

"I don't know. It's such a long way. I can't even see the other end."

"You'll do fine Rachel. In fact you'll get to the other end and wish it was longer." And with that I pushed her off. We could hear her screaming "Caaaarrrrlllooooossss!" as she went down. Then I started on Stephanie.

"Come on Babe, let's go." I encouraged her to the front.

"I don't know about this Carlos. It's a long way down."

"Has anyone in front of you fallen?"

"No"

"Would I let Julie do it if it wasn't perfectly safe?"

"No"

"Babe I would go with you if I could but this is a one person at a time situation. Think of it like a roller coaster. You are strapped into that harness. You are safe. There will be someone at the end to catch you."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

"Okay I'll go next." And she got into the line of people ready to go.

Ron was already gone and there was a couple from England here enjoying their fifth anniversary. They kissed and the woman went, soon followed by her husband. Steph is just standing anxiously bouncing on her toes. Then it is her turn and they hook her up. I give her a little kiss for luck and she inches over to the edge.

"Just jump babe, or step off. The first step is the hardest." She looks anxiously at me.

"Your overthinking it. This is for fun. Remember safe like a roller coaster. I want to hear you screaming on your way down." I tell her.

"I don't know, Carlos. That is a long way down."

"Kiss me Babe." I tell her and give her a light peck on the lips, then I push her off and she is screaming while I smile. I know she will yell at me but I also know she will love this. She just had to get over the hump.

"Sir, you're not allowed to push people off the platform." Our worker reminded me.

"Sorry, won't happen again." I tell him as I let him hook me up so that I will be laying on my stomach, flat like superman. These runs were especially beautiful as you flew through the tops of some incredibly tall and beautiful trees. Marc and Scott went last.

Both women descended on me as soon as the worker on the other end got me unhooked.

"Why did you push me?" Stephanie asked.

"You didn't need to push me I was going to go." Came from Rachel.

"You just needed a little push to get going. I knew once you went you would love it and Rachel your kids were waiting anxiously for you, unsupervised on the other side." This took some steam out of her sails.

"That didn't give you the right to push me off." Stephanie demanded hands on her hips.

"Babe, I knew you would have gone but you were working yourself up into a tizzy and you just needed a little nudge to get you going. Besides I wanted my turn and you were taking all day." I said knowing it would piss her off more but redirect her at the same time.

"You pushed me because you were in a hurry?"

"I wanted to go too, but I didn't want to leave you behind, you might have gone back and sat in the bus." I insisted.

"I wouldn't have gone and sat in the bus. I was going to go when I was ready. You pushed me before I was ready."

"But you loved it once you got going, didn't you?"

"Yeah I had fun."

"Are you ready to do it again?"

"Again?" She questioned.

"Yeah it's a series of eight lines. We climb up to the upper platform and go again." I explained pointing to the stairs above us.

"I can go again?" She half questioned, half excited. Obviously she hadn't listened to the opening briefing and instructions they gave the whole group.

"Yes, seven more times."

"All right let's go." She said taking my hand and leading me to the stairs.

Now that everyone had gone once they were all too willing to go again. The kids were especially excited. The rest of the afternoon passed quickly. In one of the areas the trees echoed the screams back to us and I had to yell on that trip just to hear it vibrate back to me. The best one was the half mile run. I had never been on one so long and it passed over some beautiful tropical landscapes and water. Everyone loved it.

Rachel cornered me after the third zipline.

"Ron and I have discussed it again. Julie is loving this ziplining and I'm sure she will love the skydiving. I looked the company up and they take hundreds of people jumping a month. So, I'm sure it is as safe as this is. But honestly that's not something I want to watch, my baby jumping out of a plane. So she can go with you if you bring her to meet up with us when you are through."

"Sure Rachel. Thanks. I think she will love it." I immediately texted Skylar.

' _Skylar beautiful. Can you please add Julie to our skydiving group and reserve any additional spots for my men.'_

A few minutes later she texted back. _'Sure, she is added. 12 is the lowest age for jumpers. Tiger and Junior are in your group. Your men have to be able to prove they have had 20 solo jumps to jump alone.'_

' _Thank you my lovely woman.'_

I checked my list and texted Ram that he was with us tomorrow and we were going skydiving at 09:30. There was room for him but he had to get his records showing he has at least 20 jumps.

Ziplining had started around 14:00 and now it was after 17:00, it was time to head back to the ship. Dinner was nice and everyone talked about their plans for tomorrow and plans they were making for Saturday. Everyone was excited about their Saturday activities most of all.

Stephanie wanted to drag me to another show and I suggested we get dressed up like it was a date. We went back to our cabin after dinner and I put on my suit pants and black button down long sleeve shirt. I chose to roll up the sleeves and leave the collar open, forgoing a tie and jacket. She put on a sexy body hugging tan dress with a short flared out skirt, matching four inch shoes that made her legs look a mile long and really accentuated the round firm swell of her ass.

"Babe do we have to go see the show?" I asked, shocked at the almost whiny sound of my voice.

"Yes, what else are we going to do all night?" She responded teasing me.

I pulled her close and rubbed my erection against her.

"I don't know I might be able to come up with a few things." I smiled at her.

"Later Batman," she smirked at me. "Come on handsome, Grease awaits." She took my hand and drug me out of the cabin barely pausing long enough to let me lock the door. The evening air was cooling as the sun began settling in the west.

The show was actually well done but halfway through I took her right hand and placed it on my leg. Every few moments I moved it a little higher and a little higher. I put my left hand over her right one to hold it in place and put my right hand on her leg. I was drawing patterns and slowly moving higher and higher as well. I got her hand to my bulging crotch and she curled her fingers around me smiling without looking at me. She, however, put her left hand over my creeping right one, stopping all forward progress.

I kissed her neck and whispered in her ear. "Babe come back to the room now and I will wear the hula outfit for you again. But only if you come back to the room now." I blackmailed.

"Carlos, I'm trying to watch the show." She insisted a little irritated.

"Babe I will give you my own show."

"I've seen your show and it only lasts 5 minutes. Then you want to get naked." She huffed.

"Yeah but the naked part lasts all night long." I licked her neck and kissed her right below her ear and she moaned.

"Besides we know how this ends: She turns into a bad girl and catches the guy. Babe will you be my bad girl?" I encouraged.

She finally looked at me I gave her my wolfish grin and she tried to lift her hand off my dick, but I pinned it there.

"Carlos, we have all night and the show only has like half an hour left. I want to watch it." I kissed her lightly on the lips and turned back to the show but kept her hand in my crotch as she tightened and lightly stroked me through the expensive material.

When the show was over she tugged her hand away so she could clap. I clapped with her, resigned to let her enjoy the evening. After the show I took her for a walk on the deck where there were very few people, to look at the stars. We walked along the decks hand in hand, like two young lovers.

The moon was less than a quarter full, a thick sliver in the sky.

"Which constellations do you see?" I asked her.

"I don't see some of the ones I'm used to." She turned around in my arms to face North. "There's Ursa Minor, and Ursa Major." She kept looking up and I just watched her and all the myriad of emotions that crossed her face. The deep concentration, the look of searching, the light up when she found some that she recognized.

"There is Leo, that's your sign." She said knowingly. "I don't see Orion. There is Cancer, and Virgo and Libra, that's my sign. That's all the ones I see that I know."

I pointed out Hercules.

"Of course you would know any well-muscled hero that's hanging out in the sky."

"There is Draco the dragon. Did you see Jupiter?" I asked.

"No"

"Right there, over our heads, it is the bright star that is not twinkling."

"Oh yeah I see it now. I was never as good with the planets cause they move so much."

"You know Babe, part of it is that it is much easier to see the stars and planets out without the light pollution we have back in Jersey. This reminds me of being in the Persian Gulf on one of my first missions. Once we got out to sea it was incredible the number of stars you could see and the milky way was so clearly visible."

"Really were you on ships a lot?"

"No we flew towards lots of our targets but many times I was involved in secret beach invasions that launched from ships."

"Wow I can't believe you are telling me this. Isn't it classified?"

"Babe I'm not telling you where we invaded or what our mission was. That's classified. But we often arrived by water, helicopter or parachuted in places we weren't really supposed to be."

We stood for a while looking at the stars, me holding her in my arms and remembering Florida. _Dios_ that was less than two weeks ago. Two weeks ago tonight we had just landed in Miami and she moved out of my room to stay with Oshanna. I snuck in and slept with her anyway, waking up with her wrapped tightly around me. I could laugh now, it seemed her subconscious always knew what she really wanted. It was such a short time but part of us being together felt so right it felt like we had always been together, even though for two years we have just danced around each other. Me holding her away from me, trying to keep her close but not too close.

Finally I led her back to our cabin. Once there I kissed her passionately, igniting her fires and as she once told me destroying her underwear. As I kissed her I let my hands roam all over her breasts and under her skirt but made no move to undress her. Her hands roamed all over my back, and backside pulling me close and rubbing herself against me doubling the size of my erection and making me painfully hard. Then she was unbuttoning my shirt and running her hands over my chest. She pinched my nipples and a surge of passion flowed through me.

I backed up a step breaking our kiss and she reached for my slacks. Fumbling to undo them, when she got the zipper down and pulled me free she sighed audibly. She shocked me by dropping down to her knees and licking the precum off the tip. Then she smiled up at me, leaned forward and enveloped me in her warm hot mouth that sucked as tight as she could.

"Babe, one second." I pulled myself free and bent down, taking the edges of her skirt in my hand and stripping her dress off of her not even paying attention to where it landed. Now she knelt in abeige bra and panty set that made her look nude with her four inch heels and I wanted to cum at the sight of her.

Then I stood proudly before her again.

"Sorry for interrupting, I just wanted to improve the view." I explained.

She grasped my throbbing hardness in her soft hand and gave me a stroke, then she took me back in her mouth and started sucking my long hard length. Lightning flashed through me and my balls grew tight. I was watching her as intently as a tiger waiting patiently for its lunch. I desperately wanted to be inside her but I was going to let her play with me for a moment. She came off of a long stroke and looked up at me, my gaze almost feral and she paused mid suck.

"I need you." I said simply and picked her up and tossed her on the bed. I stripped her with kisses and feather light touches. She moaned and writhed under my heavy ministrations. When I got down to her sweet heat I delved inside licking her clean for a few moments, passion flaring inside her heating her up but I had no patience. I needed to be inside her. I crawled up her body planting a few kisses, up her belly and on both breasts as I went. I reached for a condom and then my need was buried deep in her hot wet core. After just these two weeks she was opening for me and allowing me easier entrance.

As I slowly started moving inside her it only took a few thoughtful thrusts and overwhelmed she cried out as she was cumming. I started kissing and licking at her neck and leaving a few marks that she wasn't complaining about and quickly heated back up she was ready to go again. I had her cumming two more times before I finally took my release, pulling her to me to hold her close.

After round two she fell asleep and I got up and got my computer. I shopped online for sexy men outfits and found lots of sexy outfits. The police outfit came with cuffs but no way in hell was I dressing up like a cop to arrest her. I found a sexy all-black outfit with cuffs that said SWAT, I felt I could get away with. Maybe I would have Ella make me a tight half length tank top with BEA across the chest.

I found a Zorro costume with a black thong, cape and mask, the flimsy sword and whip accessories were extra but I thought they added to the costume so I got both. Then I found it, my _coup de grace_ a Batman outfit, with a black cape, half mask that included pointy ears, gloves with the fringe that stood out and black thong. This was it, the perfect costume for me to wear for her and I even bought the cheesy accessory belt to go with it. To finish I ordered several XL thongs that would fit me better up front, regular ones were too small and I would hang out or if I had an erection stick completely out the top.

Done shopping for myself I got her a skimpy Wonder Woman costume, a soldier outfit including a plastic bandolier of bullets and knee high boots, a skimpy Jane of the Jungle costume and I got the matching Tarzan tiger striped thong, I got her a sexy wench costume that would go well with my Zorro, I got the matching soldier outfit for men, and a female prisoner outfit to go with my SWAT. That was five outfits for each of us and if she took to dressing up we could expand. I shipped them all to Ricardo at my PO Box, lest some overzealous employee at the front desk not look closely at the label and start to open them all up.

After shopping online, I was horny again and I reached for her. We made love for hours but after 02:00 I finally left her alone, knowing we had to get up early for our sailing and snorkeling adventure that was planned.

I was up at 05:00 to use the gym, that was much smaller here than on the bigger cruise ship, fitness for tourists in Hawaii was not as important because you got off the boat and walked around exploring all day, so extra exercise was not as big of an issue. My men filtered in, even the ones that were off duty for the day and I was pleased. Best to keep in top shape in case anything unexpected should happen again. On my way back I called Bones and verified there had been no movement on Oshanna's Twitter from any of the fake accounts. I transferred to Tank and got and gave a status report.

At 6:45 I called all available men into the hall. "Easy day today men. There has been no contact from any of the fake accounts on Oshanna's Twitter or Instagram. However you still need to be prepared for anything. Carry concealed. We don't have formal permission from the Sherriff's department on Kauai to carry so don't get caught. Carry batons and knives as back-up. Same orders go for tomorrow and Sunday on Oahu. Assignments: Tiger – Stephanie, Gavin – both grandmothers, Francis – Maria, Tony – Leyla, Bobby – Angelia, Red – Isabella, Sport – Oshanna; you are her and Julio's chauffeur; Scott – Julie and Rachel. Any questions?" I looked my men over carefully.

"Dismissed"

I was waking Stephanie up at 07:00 and tried to drag her into the small shower with me. It was a tantalizing proposition as I pinned her up against the wall and rubbed against her soft silken skin but the two foot by one and a half foot shower didn't leave enough room for both of us to turn around in. The spray so small and weak you had to stand right in the middle to get any of it. She needed it more for her hair, so I had her turn around and I washed it for her. When she was done and got out I finished washing myself clean.

By the time I got out she was dressed in khaki shorts and a pink t-shirt with her bathing suit underneath. She had white sandals picked out to wear. I got dressed in my black board shorts and a black Rangeman tank top with a gun and knife in the side pocket, my Glock tucked into the back. I was especially glad I had Ella make these wardrobe adjustments. They work much better to blend and are much cooler than the black cargo pants and regular t-shirt would have been.

I texted all my men and my family reminding them that the ship leaves port at 2:00 and that they had to make sure they had time to return their rental cars before returning to the ship.

We were leaving the ship by 08:30, driving with the top down enjoying the Hawaiian sunshine and heading out to the small dock where our party was to meet. I was surprised and pleased to see my parents and _abuelas_ there as well. They said they couldn't wait to swim with the turtles. Once I did a sweep of the ship I left my weapons in the car, only keeping my knife and gave the men the option to come or to meet us when it was over in about two hours.

Once we were out in the ocean, the crew told us to watch for whales. That it was almost past mating and birthing season but that it did extend to the end of May. So most everyone took up posts around the railing looking out into the ocean. I however, having had my close up with whales that couldn't be beat, watched the beautiful island as we rounded it looking at the mountains that made up these islands and all the tropical growth.

Forty minutes later we had sailed around the top of the island to Tunnel's Beach. We stood around in the bright sunlight and I covered Stephanie in sunscreen. Everyone was fitted with snorkels, masks and fins with a short explanation of how to swim with the fins, how to clear your snorkel and keep your mask from fogging up. Then we were all in the water. It was beautiful crystalline blue green where you could see for long distances, the sun's rays flitting through the clear waters shining easily to the reef below.

The turtles were abundant, some swimming in small groupings and others swimming off by themselves. Stephanie immediately started following a turtle as it glided over the colorful reefs. The turtles didn't seem at all bothered by us until she reached out to pet it and it dove down to get away from her. She tried to follow it, but even the smooth relaxed turtle could easily speed up one notch and get away from her.

These were green turtles, one and a half to three feet long, with shells that were more brown than green but most covered with some green algae that peppered their backs. We swam around for more than an hour enjoying the colorful striped and spotted fish and abundant turtles. Stephanie seemed to be fascinated by the turtles as she followed them around, swimming above or behind them getting as close as she could. I pulled out my phone and took pictures and video of her and the turtles.

Before we knew it, time was up and we had to get back on the catamaran. They passed out bottles of water to each of us and most took up positions along the rail again looking for whales. We took off back through the ocean to the docks once again. Suddenly three were spotted and everyone's attention turned to the majestic humpback whales gliding along the top of the ocean. A crew member identified the whales and told us that these were two mothers and a baby whale. Explaining that once the baby was big enough they would head out to deeper waters for the summer and fall.

These were beautiful whales too and I enjoyed seeing them. The rest of the trip was quiet and peaceful and I spent it at the rail with Stephanie wrapped in my protective embrace. I was a different person with her and my family than I was in my daily life building up Rangeman and even more different when I was the cold calculating strategist the government hires to do their special assignments. I was used to being this caring, slightly more demonstrative person for a few moments at a time but never all day like I was being now for this trip. How was I going to manage the balancing act when I got back home?

After the mini sailing trip, we had lunch with my parents and _abuelas_ on the island. We drove up the coast a little way to Naupaka Terrace and were seated outdoors at a large round glass table with a striped blue umbrella over it. They brought two extra chairs so we could all sit and set the table for six instead of four.

We ordered seafood because that was most of the menu. My _Abuela_ Rosa had the grilled chicken flatbread with goat cheese and black olives. My _Abuela_ Sanja and my dad had the Mac Nut Crusted Catch of the day. My mother got the Hawaiian Style Poke. I got Miso Yaki Butterfish, Stephanie got the shrimp scampi but she added sides of shrimp chips and Hawaiian smashed potatoes so she could try them. I called the waitress over and behind my menu added a side of grilled vegetables for Stephanie and me and requested the same farm fresh vegetables available in the other pasta dish to be added to her shrimp scampi.

"So how are you enjoying the cruise?" I asked everyone.

"Es encantador, las islas son todas hermosas" _Abuela_ Rosa said. (It is lovely, the islands are all beautiful.)

"I'm loving it. I don't travel much because I realized I don't like traveling alone, but with the family this has been so much fun. I have spent every day with different _nietos_ and _bisnietos._ I thought for the last day I would spend it with your parents, because I've barely seen them all week." _Abuela_ Sanja said smiling. _(grandsons and granddaughters)_

"Carlos, this is the first time we have ever taken a cruise. I thought that cruises meant you were stuck on a ship for a week, how boring. But getting off the ship to see the islands has been amazing. It is so beautiful here." My mother gushed.

"Yes that is the fun things with cruises, stopping at all the ports of call." I added.

"Son this has been a wonderful vacation for the family. You don't have to pay for all of this." My father had a concerned look on his face.

"Papa I'm very rich now. I can easily afford this vacation." I told them.

"How rich are you?" _Abuela_ Sanja asked and I know she was asking out of curiosity and to assuage her guilt for me paying for everything.

"Well you know last weekend when I was really here on the cruise with you, I visited _Senior_ Sergio Valentino. He had to pay me a lot of money to go away. A thousand times more than this cruise is costing." I explained.

"He paid you money?" My mother questioned.

"He fucked with me," I said angrily then remembering the company I was in and quickly said. "Sorry Mama, _Abuelas_. He messed with me and threatened my family. I gave him options to make me go away and promise to leave my family alone. He is worth billions so I started with billions of dollars. Of course he did not agree to that but we finally settled on a rather high number. Small for him but I walked away with over fifty million dollars." I explained trying not to sound like I was gloating, but since I was going to be sharing the money I took, I wanted everyone to know that I was very rich now.

"¿ _Cincuenta millones?_ _"_ _Abuela_ Rosa gasped. _(Fifty million?)_

" _Sí abuela me amenazó. Hay un costo para eso si quiere que lo deje solo a él y a su familia."_ I explained. _(Yes abuela he threatened me. There is a cost for that if he wants me to leave him and his family alone.)_

" _O lo matarías?"_ She breathed. _(Or you would kill him.)_ I didn't like discussing such a grim topic at the lunch table but I had opened the door and I told them what was going to be the official story for my family.

" _Si, él y su esposa y sus hijos. Amenazó a mi familia, era justo amenazar el suyo."_ I continued. _(Yes, him and his wife and his children. He threatened my family it was only fair to threaten his.)_

Stephanie was staring at me wide eyed but I was not going to translate this for her.

"Babe, I was trying to explain to _Abuela_ Rosa. I'll tell you about it later."

"No problem Carlos. You'll just have to start teaching me Spanish before Christmas so I can have a conversation with her." Stephanie stipulated.

"Sure we will find you someone to teach you Spanish. I'm not the right person to teach Spanish. Gun safety, self-defense, take-down techniques I can teach all day long but not Spanish." I clarified.

 _Abuela_ Rosa smiled at Stephanie and I had no doubt she understood what Stephanie was asking and was looking forward to talking to her in her native tongue.

"So back to our discussion I have some money now and I want to invest it and share it with the families. Any suggestions?"

"How about college funds for all the kids?" My mother offered.

"I was thinking something like that."

"Or donating to retirement funds?" _Abuela_ Sanja suggested.

"Isabella and Diego have been working hard to save up and buy their own home. An assistance with a down payment would be helpful." Dad was thoughtful.

"What about annual trips like this so the whole family can get together?" Stephanie proposed.

"That would be fun and I think bring the family closer together again. I have been really thankful for this trip. It has introduced Julie and her siblings to all of their cousins and got them more interested in my side of the family." I spilled.

"It has been good for all of us _mi'jo_. Some of us never take time off work to take vacations." Mama looked poignantly at Papa.

"I am realizing that while I am a critical part of my business it can run without me for short periods of time. When I called David last week for the forth day in a row he told me to stop calling and enjoy my vacation that if any issues come up he would call me. He has called me twice since then, both times to assure me everything was going fine. It is wonderful to build something so stable it doesn't need you anymore but it is nice to occasionally still be needed." Papa bemoaned.

"I'm grateful to have a company that can work without me. But it just seems to do a little bit better when I am there." I agreed.

"So what are you going to do now that you have all this money?" Mama asked me.

"Going back to work. Helping Stephanie prepare for a wedding and planning a honeymoon." I said simply.

"You're not going to invest it and retire?" Mama was curious.

"I will buy out my partners and give my men better Christmas bonuses. But this is my dream and my baby. I can take time off whenever I want to but it's my company. We built it into something big and I want to build it into something bigger. Expand into the Midwest and California. Realize every branch I create I open up jobs for sixty to seventy more men. That's one reason I do it. To create jobs for ex-military men that can't get good paying jobs somewhere else. Jobs that they are good at; jobs that utilize their skills and training."

"That's admirable son and obviously quite profitable."

"My plan when I get back is to hire several retired commanders to come train in one of the four branches we have open. I have several cities I have already scouted. I will have them pick cities and we will start three new branches by the end of summer. One is going to be offered the Trenton branch and I am going to give Tank a raise and put him in charge of all the branches. He may not like all the traveling, but I think I can make it worth his while. I will focus on the expansions so Stephanie and I will be traveling a lot. Babe there is going to be a lot more paperwork in the office if you want something part time to do besides skip chasing."

"No I'm happy with my job and I am good at finding the bad guys. But maybe I would like something else to do besides the search desk. I don't mind all the searches for FTAs, it is interesting searching for criminals. I like hunting them down. But all the other searches are mind numbing and boring. I'd pay someone else to do them."

"I think it is time to hire Rodrigues his own assistant. Someone just to do all his searches and help him with his presentations, because it is more than a full-time job at this point. But Rodrigues is priceless, he finds us most of our accounts and gets most of them signed without any help. For really big accounts and when needed, Tank and I meet with the clients personally. As big as Tank is he scares most people, but in this business, it makes people believe he can protect them. It's a big asset."

"So who will replace him?" Papa asked.

"Someone with Commander experience and who also looks like he could kick the shit out of someone." I said without thinking.

"Carlos," Mama gasped.

"I mean snot, kick the snot out of someone." I corrected. Our meals came and saved me from more recriminations. After we were all into our food I asked. "What is everyone doing tomorrow on Oahu?"

"We are planning on the Arizona Memorial in the morning after we get settled in the hotel. Then the Diamond Head Crater Hike, sightseeing, the Historical Art museum, then a little shopping, dinner and the beach at sunset." Mama laid it out.

"Tomorrow I am going to the Arizona with most of the family, then with Leyla and Richard for the rest of the day to Manoa Falls, Luumahu Falls, Makapu'u Point lighthouse, Waikiki Beach for a short break and then the traditional fire luau." _Abuela_ Sanja read off her phone.

" _Voy al memorial y luego a Angelia. Ella necesita mucha ayuda con sus pequeños. Sé que nosotros también iremos a la playa._ _"_ _Abuela_ Rosa said. _(I am going to the memorial and then with Angelia. She needs so much help with her little ones. I know we too are going to the beach.)_

"That all sounds like fun." I thought.

"You haven't asked me what I want to do." Stephanie huffed.

"I asked you several nights ago but we haven't discussed it since." I said. "Babe what do you want to do tomorrow?"

She also pulled out her phone and I stared at the dandelion blowing away on her case as she read. "I want to do some shopping, I want to go to this swap meet with 400 venders, then some sightseeing, maybe the waterfalls. I want to go to the beach and then the fire luau for dinner. I think that will be more interesting for you than the luau we watched the other night."

"Sure we can do that but we have an appointment at 9:30 once we get everyone settled into their hotel rooms."

"What are we doing?"

"It's a surprise, but Julie is going with us."

"Then can we go shopping?"

"Then we can go to the swap meet. I'll give you up to 2 hours of shopping but I am not going to be shopping all day." I told her.

"That's fine. I just need to get about 7 or 8 things for other people and a few things for me."

"We have a little time after lunch, we can hit some shops on our way back."

After lunch we drove up the Kuhio Highway and stopped at little tourist shops that littered the road.

Stephanie got a picture frame that had a turtle on it, a turtle t-shirt for herself, a Hawaiian shirt for her dad, a keychain and several magnetized picture frames.

We dropped our rental car off at the airport and got back to the ship with fifteen minutes to spare. At 1:55 Sport texted that they were still in line at the airport to return the car, had already called an Uber but wouldn't be back for 15 minutes. I walked with Stephanie to the gangplank and the two crewmembers there. They assured me that no one was allowed off the boat but we wouldn't be leaving immediately and anyone trying to get back on would be allowed.

The second crewmember told me quietly that they didn't advertise it but since it was our last port he would tell me that the ship usually stays an extra hour at each stop to catch the stragglers. That people often don't leave enough time to return rental cars or catch the bus and are often late. I texted Sport the ship would wait but to hurry. If I told him they had an hour and he told Oshanna she would find more things to stop and do on the way back.

This was Sport's first time watching Oshanna alone, I reminded myself, and he had not been warned of her propensity for delay. We had a quiet afternoon on board the ship. Stephanie wanting to work on her tan poolside under the strong Hawaiian sun. Just since yesterday I could see she was getting darker. I brought my laptop and did work cleaning up the Colombian mess and making sure Bones had been able to get all the necessary information to the new business owners so they could take over on Monday.

He warned me that the mid-manager that was supposed to make sure everyone got six months pay never notified him that the task was complete and when he looked at the account there was only one transfer of funds from the account and it had drained the account of every penny. I asked him to follow the money and get it back.

Thirty minutes later he notified me that it had all been transferred to the manager's private account and then transferred again to an account in his wife's name. That plane tickets were bought for France and Wednesday a large withdrawal of $8,000 had been made. The plane tickets were scheduled to fly out yesterday on Thursday. I told Bones to strip him of every penny he had left in the account and put it back into the business account it had come out of then change the password. I couldn't get the cash back but I had him cancel the tickets for the return flight.

I had to go back to our room to get the Sergio folder that had all the information in it. I found the list of managers and pulled out my satellite phone. It didn't take long to find out that the manager in question had turned his notice in the same day he stole all the money. I found out his secretary was left with all the empty accounts and no way to make payroll. I talked to her directly and promoted her to the manager's position. She told me what was needed and I transferred the money to the account she specified. She told me it would take two days to get everyone paid but that she would have each field and plant manager call their employees directly to tell them their paychecks would be ready next Wednesday. I thanked her and gave her a nice raise to go along with her promotion.

I made reservations for us at one of the onboard steak house restaurants. We returned to our room and got dressed up for dinner. Stephanie in a beautiful clingy blue dress and me in my suit. We had a nice quiet romantic dinner and she looked through all the pictures on my phone.

"I want to put some pictures up in your apartment."

"Our apartment." I corrected her.

"Our apartment." she repeated.

"I don't mind a few nice pictures but you're not going to turn it into my mother's house where every surface is covered in pictures." I said.

"Just some pictures of this trip and your family. I'd like some pictures of Julie around for when she comes to visit."

At 19:00 I followed her to one of the theaters that was having a comedy show. It was pretty good and kept me entertained so I didn't just sweep her back to our bedroom for some night time lovin'. After the show we walked on the deck again to see the stars and just hold hands. When we have our honeymoon I wanted lots of alone time with her. Knowing I was going to be getting everyone up early I texted my family to get up at 06:00 so we could leave the ship by 07:00. Then I took Stephanie to bed so she could get enough sleep.

To be continued….

A/N: Thank you all for your reviews! They are truly loved and appreciated! Only two more chapters left to enjoy Hawaii and get everyone back home safely. Please read and review.

Yes I forgot it was Friday I had some work to finish on this chapter so I am late but thanks for the reminder.

As always big THANK YOU to my beta Sassysaint for all your encouraging!

Second Big THANK YOU to my sister, Jonelle. Thank you for fixing all my many little mistakes.


	35. Chapter 35 Flying High in Honolulu

Chapter 35 Flying High in Honolulu

Saturday May 29

In the Port of Honolulu, Oahu, HI

 _At 19;00 I followed her to one of the theaters that was having a comedy show. It was pretty good and kept me entertained so I didn't just sweep her back to our bedroom for some night time lovin'. After the show we walked on the deck again to see the stars and just hold hands. When we had our honeymoon, I wanted lots of alone time with her. Knowing I was going to be getting everyone up early I texted my family to get up at 06:00 so we could leave the ship by 07:00. Then I took Stephanie to bed so she could get enough sleep._

My alarm hadn't gone off but at 04:50 Stephanie woke and ran to the bathroom. She was in there for a long while and finally came out looking for her luggage. After finding her toiletries bag she disappeared back into the bathroom. She had gone through it twice and was talking rather loudly to herself. Then she looked out at me with an odd expression on her face.

"You, you packed my toiletries."

"Yes, I grabbed everything from your bathroom that you use or would need."

"Not everything." She whispered.

I sat up. "Babe what do you need?"

"Tampons" She whispered.

Oh I know I didn't pack any of those. In fact they had never crossed my mind when I was grabbing everything out of her bathroom.

"I'll go to the ship store and get you some." I offered.

"Thanks but I can manage." She said as she got up and dressed. Putting on some jean shorts and a red t-shirt.

She was slipping on shoes as I got up and dressed too. I knew there was no threat but I felt funny just letting her walk away unescorted. Now that she was with me I wanted her to have a bodyguard with her all the time.

I was tying my boots as she opened the door.

"Wait I'll go with you."

"You don't need to. I can buy personal care products by myself."

"I'm already up, I might as well come with you." I insisted as I walked to the door.

I held the door open and let her lead the way. I took her hand in the hallway. Obviously, there was no way she was pregnant and I was relieved. The idea of her pregnant with my child may be appealing on a primal level but until I got her situated in my life and under an acceptable level of security I didn't need to add any other complications.

She was already going to be upset with the security measures I wanted to put in place. I was going to start high and she was going to start with none and hopefully we can compromise somewhere in the middle.

I followed her down several green carpeted hallways, until we reached the main level. I was not surprised that she would know without looking on a ship map exactly where the only store on the ship was located. When we arrived, I was shocked that the store wasn't open twenty-four hours, as she stood gaping at the sign that said store hours were from 6:00 AM to 10:00 PM.

"Fuck" She declared, "they aren't open."

"Come on we can go ask my mom." She looked at me horrified. "Or maybe Oshanna?" I wondered if that was better.

"Carlos, I can't ask your mom. That would be too awkward. They open at 6:00 we'll just come back in an hour."

"Well, since we're up do you want to go get breakfast before we have to leave the ship?"

"Sure, I guess."

I took her hand and asked a stupid question. "Dining room or buffet?"

"Buffet" she quickly responded. I knew that was going to be her answer but I had to ask. I of course would prefer the dining room where I can order an egg white omelet with sautéed vegetables. There wouldn't be any vegetables on the buffet, only some fruit, so I would just go with it.

She made a waffle in their waffle maker, got some scrambled eggs, sausage, and bacon before she sat down to eat. I got some fruit, cottage cheese, a bagel I toasted myself with a little cream cheese and wondered where she put it all. I got some fruit for her and joined her at our table. The food was put out earlier today because more people would be up wanting to eat before they leave the ship.

I got up and made us each a cup of coffee and got a glass of orange juice for each of us as well. I balanced it all on a tray and came back to serve her.

"My lady." I offered as I set the coffee and juice in front of her. She smiled at me, mouth full and mumbled her thanks.

I have been around her while she was 'on the rag'. I know because I would always check her bathroom when breaking in to see how she was doing, that was always one thing I checked. I knew that being on the rag meant she needed more iron but there were no leafy green vegetables or steak on the menu. I would just have to make sure she got some later in the day.

During breakfast I texted Tank and Bones to see if there was anything suspicious happening on the Twitter or Instagram accounts or anything suspicious anywhere regarding my family. I was given the all clear from both and a quick update from Tank on the happenings in Trenton. I let him know that I had given all the men the week off next week and to let Miami know as well that the men wouldn't be back for another week. He gave me crap for not asking him before giving a third of his personnel time off and I told him to go suck it, the men had dealt with my family for more than two weeks of being on high alert and they deserved a week downtime before coming back.

After breakfast we made our way back to the shop and walked the few aisles they had for the pharmacy area. The tampons were right next to the Depends of all things and she stood there looking at the limited options. There were Tampax and OB, in different sizes and quantities. She stood their staring and I wondered what the problem was. She mostly used regulars though she had a box of supers under her cabinet she didn't seem to use that often.

She still stood their staring. "Which one do you need? Buy enough to last you till we get home." I encouraged.

"But Carlos they are twelve dollars! Twelve dollars for a pack of 24. I pay like six dollars at the grocery store for a pack of 32. This is a total rip off."

"Buy two, you know they won't go bad."

"Two! I was thinking we could wait till we were off the ship."

"Babe, busy day. We have a lot to do today. This morning we have to get everyone off the ship, situated in the hotel, and then we have a 9:30 appointment with Julie. We don't have time to go find a store and buy tampons when we can buy them right here and now. I'll pay for them." I grabbed a box and started making my way to the register. As I passed the medications part of the aisle I got some Midol. What I needed was to get some happy pills or a drink into her. A skydiver never wants to jump impaired but with tandem jumping a few drinks couldn't hurt. At this point in my life I could never tandem jump. I could never put my life in the hands of another jumper. Well, maybe Tank or some of the other men I have jumped with but not a Hawaiian beach bum. Even if they did have more jumps under their belts than me.

It was eighteen dollars for the whole purchase and I knew it was worth it. But Stephanie was so use to counting her change and making all her purchases count. I wondered how long it would take to break her of the habit and get her used to having money.

At 07:00 we were out of our rooms, with our luggage, ready to depart the ship and quite a bit of my family were ready to go as well. All my men were packed. I didn't see Julio, Oshanna or Angelia. I called Marc over.

"I hate to dump the crap on you but I am going to take the members of my family and men that are ready to go. Will you get the rest to the hotel? I will have the key cards and room assignments waiting in your hotel room. I will leave your room key at the front desk."

"Sure"

I called all my men around me and gave out their assignments for the day and night shifts. Assigned men to be on duty tomorrow and get us loaded on the airplane. Then I wished all of them a lot of fun in Hawaii. I was asked when they were going to get their money and I did a mental head slap. I told them I would ask to have it done today and the money should be in their accounts on Monday.

The morning sun was shining down brightly on us as we exited the ship. Once we were all loaded up on the busses to go back to the same hotel, I texted Bones with a list of the men on the trip and asked him to transfer the bonus money to them. When everyone was assigned their rooms and were handed key cards I told the group that cars were reserved in my name at the airport and everyone can go themselves or have their man assigned for the day to go get their vehicle. I left the information in Marc's room for him and texted him his room number.

I got Stephanie, Julie, Tiger, Junior and Ram and we took a bus to the airport. I had the guys get their own vehicle and rented another convertible. From the airport we started driving out to the private airstrip where Skydiving Hawaii ran their planes. The air temperature was in the seventies and climbing with the bright sun and lots of white puffy clouds filling the sky.

"So Julie, did your mother tell you what we are doing today?" I started.

"No, she just said that if I loved ziplining I would love this even more." She smiled at me.

"Yes you will. We are going to do the ultimate thrill ride."

"We are going on roller coasters?" She asked.

"No we are going to jump out of an airplane."

"Jump out of an airplane?" She sounded scared.

"Skydiving. We are going skydiving. You are going to do a tandem jump. You will be attached to a professional skydiver and they will get you down to the ground safely."

"Really? Skydiving?"

"Yeah. Julie you are going to love it. It is the ultimate rush."

"Wow, Dad that's awesome!" We turned onto an open highway and I sped up increasing the wind noise in the car. I reached across the console to take Stephanie's hand and smiled at her. She had not responded to the skydiving comments and I didn't know if she wanted to do it or was expecting it was only for Julie.

Once we arrived I secretly left all my weapons in the car. Inside we had a bunch of paperwork to fill out and sign. Stephanie had to sign several forms too and still she did not question what she was doing there. We watched a video about the process: the plane ride, our equipment, how you hooked up for a tandem jump, jumping out of the plane, how to fall, the release of the chute and the landing. It showed them jumping out of a plane and the fall from 20,000 feet.

The guys that worked here came in with our equipment. They dropped full packs to Ram, Tiger, Junior and me and took the harnesses to Stephanie and Julie. One guy, Grace was his name, was all too cheerfully putting his hands on Stephanie as he helped her climb into her harness and I gave him a harsh glare. He quickly took his hands off her and was very careful to not touch her too much when he strapped her in.

"Wait I'm not jumping." She tried to protest.

"You signed the paperwork and he paid for you so I think Yeah, you are jumping."

"No wait." She came over to me.

"I thought this was for Julie, not me."

"Babe it is for both of you. You love roller coasters and you loved ziplining. You're going to love this too." I smiled at her. "Just get the harness on and don't think about it too much. You will do fine."

She nodded to me and went back over to Grace who finished getting her ready. Then the guys disappeared and came back with packs on. There were four guys suited up ready to jump with us. They brought helmets out for us handing them over, watching us strap them on. Then they spun us around, checked out our harnesses and packs, and went over everything with us. From how to jump, fall and when to pull our chutes. I was being terse and not tolerant of being treated as if I didn't have tons of jumps under my belt. This was a light pack as I was used to jumping with full equipment packs and weapons.

"Dude, it's our job to make sure you make it back to the ground in one piece. We've never had a serious accident in all the years we have been open and we are not going to start now with a hard headed military man who thinks he knows better than we do. We all do 10 or more jumps a week. Several jumps every day. We have hundreds of jumps under our belts and no one wants you to make it safely to the ground more than we do." Jumper, the guy that Julie was going to be attached to explained. "So listen to us, we aren't just talking to move the air."

If I could sigh out loud and roll my eyes I would have but I just stood there blank faced.

"And have fun Dude. We are doing this to have fun. If you can't have fun you might as well stay on the ground." Steve, one of the cameramen said.

They swapped to check Julie's and Stephanie's harnesses again and handed all of us safety goggles.

I had paid for the full packages for us, including pictures and videos of the jumps. Julie and Stephanie each had their own guy to jump with and a guy to take video, while we had Go Pro video cameras on our helmets. In my mind once I had strapped on my gear I became Ranger again, the military guy that ran a tight ship and had control over everything. Carlos was the lover, friend and family man.

When all the gear was triple checked, the guys had us all stand on the steps and pose for a picture. They led us out to a truck and we all climbed into the back, Julie and Steph sat on the wheel wells but all of us guys with the big packs on were sitting on the bed. It was a short drive but I was already sweating with the large pack, all the straps and the helmet we were required to wear. We got to a small plane and I didn't think we would all fit but there were actually twelve seats inside. Enough for four tandem jumpers and four camera men. That was not counting the two pilots who had driven the truck.

Stephanie was shocked as we got going and realized there was no door on the back of the plane, that it stayed open the whole time we were in flight with a little gate that covered the lower half of the door. She noticed me watching my altimeter that was strapped on my wrist. She pulled my hand closer and looked at it. Even upside down she could see it counting the feet as we climbed.

At 12,000 feet they passed out oxygen masks and we all put them on. Stephanie didn't have a watch on and stared at me and out the door. As I watched her it seemed like it took longer to reach 20,000 feet than she had expected. She was starting to look a little anxious. They had promised her we would still be able to breathe once we took the oxygen masks off and when we climbed into the plane she was excited. Now she was looking totally ready to be down on the ground just not sure jumping was how she wanted to get there.

During the flight Grace and Jumper, sitting behind the girls, had attached to them. All the seats in the plane were just flat seats with no backs so the girls sat facing Ram and me with their camera men sitting behind us. Tiger and Junior were behind Grace and Jumper.

Once we were at 20,635 feet they started gathering up everyone's oxygen masks and the cameraman sitting behind me opened the gate and stepped out, getting ready for Julie and Jumper. Jumper patted her arm and told her to move towards the door. They stood together and the cameraman was ready as they stepped out of the plane. Grace and Stephanie stood to follow. I grabbed her hand and squeezed it, smiling at her as she nervously passed.

Julie and Jumper jumped, their cameraman right with them. Jumper flipped Julie several times and then straightened out letting them fall. The next cameraman stepped out and waited for Stephanie and Grace. Stephanie seemed scared but Grace kept her moving forward. I stood ready to jump as soon as they went. I wanted to go down with her and as soon as they were out the door I followed.

Grace flipped, head over heels, two times with Stephanie and I appreciated the fun he was bringing to her jump. I had fought to try to be her tandem jumper but as I had never jumped tandem before the request had been quickly denied. As many times as I have jumped I had never flipped in the air. So I flipped just to feel what it was like. It felt freeing and crazy to watch the earth and sky spin around you in a dizzying circle. I smiled then flipped two more times.

Stephanie was just below me and I worked to catch up as Grace pulled his drag chute. I immediately pulled mine so I didn't pass them and slowly worked my way down to be aligned with her. As I went to take her hand Grace got them spinning, and she screamed out loud as they spun around and around.

The wind rushed passed us, loud in our ears, and I smiled at the huge grin on her face letting me know in no uncertain terms she was loving this. Grace signaled to me and the cameraman and we all three pulled our chutes. I was taken too far away from her and watched her drift below me.

I looked at the beautiful mountainous island below covered in lush foliage and focused on Julie, who was so much further below us gently drifting down. I kept my eyes on both of my girls who with the weight of two people were falling faster than me. When we had jumped out of the plane you could see the whole island of Oahu. Now as the ground rushed towards us you could only see the south side of the island.

I guided myself to land near them as I watched them smoothly land and unhook. Julie cheered and jumped up high fiving Jumper and her cameraman. Seconds later Steph was landing and I couldn't watch any more as I pulled down hard on my chute to stop my decent and land myself.

I took off my pack and left it behind me, chute and all so I could reach my girls. Julie jumped in my arms.

"That was fantastic Dad." She squealed. I swung her around and held her close to me realizing she had never jumped in my arms before or hugged me so tight. When we were done Stephanie was waiting a few feet away and without setting Julie down I took her into my arms too and squished them together. Julie squealed again before letting go of me.

I set her down and took Stephanie into my arms and passionately took her lips like I was going to lay her out on the grass and take her right there. She was so high on endorphins she wrapped one leg around me and pressed her core to my throbbing center. I wondered how much I would have to pay everyone to climb back in the truck and leave so I really could take Stephanie. I saw Julie standing there with a funny look on her face and quickly released Stephanie and stepped back from her.

"Aww Dad, that was just getting good. You looked like you had a porno going there." Julie smiled at us. I looked around to see all my men were down on the ground watching our display. I smiled at Stephanie and thought about falcons that mate while falling to the earth and how much of a rush it would be to skydive naked, pull the chute and copulate on the way down. As if she knew what I was thinking, Stephanie hit me lightly on the chest and said, "Don't even think about it."

Skydiving releases so many endorphins it would definitely add to the human mating ritual and certainly somewhere people had tried it. But my little 'can't even stand to be naked in front of me' girl was not going to be one of them. I took her hand and apologized to the guy who was collecting up my chute and pack. I led the girls back to the truck and all my guys had responsibly collected up their chutes and were carrying them back. Fifteen minutes later we were back at Skydiving Hawaii waiting for our videos and pictures to be burnt onto disks. Julie was still bouncing off the wall.

"So what are we going to do next?" She asked enthusiastically.

"I think we are supposed to meet up with your parents at the Arizona and drop you off."

"Oh Dad. I've spent my whole vacation with them. I want to just hang out with you today."

I turned to Stephanie, "What are we doing today?" I know she had told me but after we got through with the skydiving I was pretty open to doing anything.

"Shopping," Stephanie said elatedly. "There is a huge outdoor market with 400 vendors and I have some souvenir shopping to do."

"Julie that is up to your Mom and Dad." I explained.

Next thing I knew she had her phone out and was texting away. Then she came back to me.

"Mom said it was okay with her as long as it was okay with you. You have to call or text her."

For courtesy's sake I called Rachel. "Hey Rachel."

"Julie says you invited her to go with you today."

"Yes Stephanie and I would love to spend the day with her. We don't have that much planned, just some shopping and sightseeing but she is welcome to come with us."

"Ron and I think that is fine. Just keep a close eye on her."

"Of course Rachel, we will have Ram with us also."

"That sounds good. We'll catch up with you tonight."

I disconnected, still not use to saying goodbye to anyone. I still hadn't had to talk to Stephanie on the phone yet and that was something I was putting off as long as possible. Riding around town in a convertible was one of my fun thrills for this trip. We were in a Mustang again, they didn't have any higher end convertibles available on such short notice but it was fun to ride around in the sun with the top down.

As we pulled up at the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet, the sun was still shining bright and the temperature was quickly rising. There were hundreds of cars in the parking lot but it was a large lot and I quickly found a place. Ram had ridden in the car with us as Tiger and Junior were off today and took their vehicle. The four of us started inside and I asked Ram to follow us and keep an eye out. I of course was going to stay on guard but I liked having backup when Stephanie's and Julie's lives were at stake.

It was one dollar per person to get in and I was surprised at the large booths that were covered with 20 foot by 20 foot white canopies. Each booth had lots of tables and stands underneath them that held racks and tables full of discounted merchandise. After an hour I acknowledged that the only thing in danger here was my credit card.

There were so many vendors here with so much great merchandise. Jewelry places with cheap seashell necklaces and lots of other beaded jewelry. They were so cheap Stephanie got necklaces for all the women in her family, friends and Jewels got one for herself. Vendors with carved statues. Vendors with Hawaiian clothing, where Stephanie got a few shirts for her dad and Albert, desperately trying to talk me into a few colorful shirts for myself. I declined, it was nothing personal, but one sighting in a Hawaiian shirt and I would lose all my hard earned street cred.

There were hand woven baskets and a vendor that had all kinds of cooking gadgets so Stephanie got her mother a pretty floral apron and I got two, one for my mother and one for Ella. In another clothing store she got some women's shirt and short sets for her granny.

In another jewelry vendor she got a set of dolphin earrings and a necklace for Angie. We passed booths full of purses, and one set up that was all collectors knives. In one booth there were t-shirts at seven for twenty dollars so Stephanie and Jewels each had to get seven. Stephanie got some for her sister Val, Connie and Lula and Julie got some for her sister and brother too. There were lots of vendors with Hawaiian memorabilia that had Hawaii or Honolulu painted on them and the girls loaded up on several different things for themselves, friends, and family.

There were board shorts, bikinis, large towels and all kinds of beach gear. Of course each girl needed an extra large Hawaiian beach towel and at five for twenty five dollars I had them get five. There was one booth that had all kinds of Hawaiian brightly colored and flowered luggage. Certain they were buying more stuff than could fit into their current luggage, Stephanie and Julie each got a roll around carry-on sized bag. There was one vendor with different Disney stuffed animals and dolls. Stephanie got a princess doll for Angie and a Lilo and Stich set for little Lisa.

There was a vendor with different kinds of leis and Stephanie had to get some for everyone in her family, Connie, Lula and then everyone in my family. Of course at less than one dollars each I could afford it. There was a vendor with sunglasses for three to five dollars a pair and we all got a pair. Stephanie got several pairs for people back home including a rhinestone covered one for Lula. We had passed many clothing vendors and Stephanie found one with plus sized women's outfits and bought some sequined covered stuff for Lula.

There were a lot of vendors with fresh fruit or packaged and jarred food for visitors to try and take home. With a personal recommendation Stephanie and Jewels tried mochi ice cream. About the size of a silver dollar these were different flavors of ice cream wrapped in a chewy outer layer made of rice. They both loved it and had to try several different flavors.

Finally we left to get some lunch and stopped at one of the many roadside shrimp trucks. As the day had progressed the clouds had started congregating and looking like rain. Stephanie got the pineapple sweet and sour shrimp and was told if she loved pineapple to go to the Dole pineapple farm. We plotted a course through Honolulu that showed us some of the main tourist sites and led us to the pineapple farm.

When you enter the Dole complex you see DOLE out front in big red flowers. We walked through the gift shop filled with everything pineapple, bought tickets to go on the train and walked the gardens that told about many plants from the islands. The twenty minute train ride was very informative and we got to see acres and acres of pineapple plants. While we were on the train it started a light rain and it cooled off the hot air just a little.

When we got back, it was still raining so Stephanie led us to the shop where they sold pineapple whip as they called it. It was pineapple soft serve ice cream and Julie and Stephanie moaned their way through it. Stephanie declared if there was one food she could bring back with her it would be the pineapple whip. I thought about it, as much as she loved ice cream, soft serve was lower in fat and calories and pineapple soft serve even more so. It might be worth it to invest in a soft serve machine that she could put her own flavors into and try to find some that like this soft serve were made from real fruit and not packed full of preservatives.

I was ready to go but now it had stopped raining and Julie wanted to get lost in the biggest permanent maze on the island. The walls were over eight feet high and Julie went right in and set about getting lost as she searched for the big pineapple in the middle of the maze. Once we found it she had to walk around it and then lead us out another path opposite the one we had come in through. Fifteen minutes later she led us out of the maze happy as a clam that she had gotten lost and found so quickly.

Stephanie brought up going to see the Arizona, I wasn't going to mention it but if they wanted to go I was game. I plotted it into my phone and we drove there in the hot Hawaiian sun and I was glad we weren't here in the peak of the summer. Glad we weren't fighting hordes of summer tourists and glad we weren't sweating our butts off in ninety degree weather.

"Dad I never knew Pearl Harbor was so far inland." Julie told me as we looked at a 3D replica of Oahu and the many sites listed on it. Pearl Harbor was really a large cove several miles inland that was protected from the ocean by land on all sides with one large river that flowed back out to the ocean. The cove was huge allowing for a quarter of the Pacific Fleet to be stationed here at the time of the attack.

The USS Arizona was only one of many ships sank in that attack but it is so near the surface it can easily be seen and was turned into a memorial. We took the boat over to the memorial and got off to find that you could barely see the ends of the Arizona it was so long. The memorial was open on both sides allowing an unobstructed view of the ship and there was a cut out in the middle of the floor so you could look straight down onto the ship. Everyone was quiet here and respectful for all the lives lost that day. A guard that Julie and Stephanie was talking to told them reverently stories about that day and that only nine men that had been stationed on the USS Arizona lived.

There were 1177 men killed aboard the USS Arizona when it sank. Eighteen ships were sunk or run aground during the attack on December 7 1941 but none of them lost their entire crews like the USS Arizona. In all 2403 Americans died and 1178 were wounded during the attack on Pearl Harbor. After seeing all the names listed on the wall of the memorial and talking to the guard we were ready to leave and took the next boat back.

Then we walked the grounds and viewed the memorials for all the submarines sunk in World War II and another memorial for all the ships sunk in World War II and all the men who died on them. Knowing how close men who work in teams and at sea on ships for months at a time become and the losses that are felt when a whole ship of men is lost I felt these deaths more deeply than either girl but they were very somber looking at the long lists of names of all the men and women who died at sea during the war.

In the school systems the attack on Pearl Harbor is taught extensively as the way we got into the war. D-Day is taught as the point where we invaded the mainland from England and began to take Europe back. The dropped bombs on Japan as the way the war was brought to an end but the thousands who died during the years in between are skimmed over. The US fought on both sides of the world, the Atlantic invading Europe and taking it back from Germany and Italy; and the Pacific taking back endless islands from Japan and fighting over the ocean itself.

I finally led the girls back to the car underneath bright white puffy clouded skies. Stephanie wanted to see Waikiki beach and I thought a little more cheer was needed after all the death of the war. As we approached the beach some of the clouds split and a beautiful rainbow appeared before us.

Julie pointed and I nodded to her that I saw it as well. I was surprised to get down to the beach with Stephanie's big bag and have her pull out the towels we had just bought and sunscreen. She and Julie stripped down to their bikinis. I know that she had said that the beach was one thing she wanted to do today but didn't realize she was so prepared. After Stephanie was lotioned up I left my guns in the car, knowing Ram would stay armed and on high alert and followed Julie in my cargos into the ocean to play. We body surfed and swam in the crystal clear waters while Stephanie laid out. After a little while I called Stephanie to join us and she did. Julie tried to teach her how to body surf and was somewhat successful. We played and splashed and enjoyed the sun and the warm water. We had just over an hour at the beach and it was a relaxing fun time.

My watch beeped letting me know it was time to get ready for dinner. We returned to the hotel and got a key card for Julie then set off to prepare for the luau. We all carried a few of Julie's bags in with us and it was then that I realized the girls had been handing me and Ram their bags the whole time they were shopping and since they were not heavy we kept accepting them. Plus they were each carrying some bags themselves so between the two girls there were over twenty five bags plus their new luggage. I was not so much looking forward to the luau as I was looking forward to spending more time with Julie, Stephanie and the rest of my family that was going to be there.

Upon arriving we found Isabella. Angelia and Leyla with their whole families and _Abuela_ Sanja and their men sitting at a group of tables. We sat at another table nearby and prepared for the feast and the show. The feast started with long buffet tables laden down with food. Along with the roasted pig there was lomi lomi salmon, pipikaula (Hawaiian beef jerky), poke (ahi fish) Hawaiian grilled fish salad and chicken long rice. There were lots of vegetable sides including Aloha sweet potatoes, haupia, kalua, kulolo, laulau, a long buffet of salad toppings and lots of tropical fruits.

We all happily ate with a band that played traditional Hawaiian music serenading us. Stephanie tried several of their deserts but fell in love with the Haupia Pie, a traditional pie of coconut pudding, and astonishingly had room to go back for seconds. After the meal, as the sun began to set, we were all ushered to outdoor stadium-like seating in front of a two foot high stage. Lovely female dancers came on and danced to the live band. Male dancers came on and danced to the band. Then both came on and danced together and I was sure this was going to be another boring show like we had seen on the ship.

After a lot of dancing and costume changes the chief took the microphone and it was nothing like I expected or could have imagined. He talked all serious, like he was telling us the truth, but he was hilarious! I found my lips twitching into a smile while I stifled a laugh and Stephanie elbowed me with a stern look to let go and enjoy myself. She was laughing uproariously and obviously this show was created, well-practiced, and orchestrated to be funny as well as informative.

The Chief gave a long strung out explanation of how they traditionally used to start fires by rubbing certain kinds of sticks together and then 'whispered' to his assistant to go get matches. Next he asked the audience if they wanted to see a big fire and 'whispered' to his sidekick to go get gasoline. On and on he went throwing out jokes the entire way. Finally he made fire, rubbing sticks together and lit coconut fibers that were dried and then the stage went dark. When he lit one of the torches used for the fire dancing he started spinning the fire around and around, working it in front and behind him.

This started the more interesting 'hula' fire dancing as different men came up with fire torches and spun the fire and did different tricks with the fire. Over, under, around and through I knew they did these tricks night after night, still I was impressed at how fast they could spin the fire, so fast it was a blur while still doing tricks. They tossed them high and caught them, as well as between their legs and jumping over the flames. I kept waiting for the leaves hanging off of their calves to catch fire.

The whole show was a total of an hour and a half but the last ten minutes was the best for me. Men working the fire spinning it and flipping it, with them at one point having ten men out there at the same time juggling the fire. At the end it turns out that several of the men are world champion fire jugglers and I didn't even know there were world competitions for such things. They ended with more dancing and thanking everyone and honestly the part with the chief was funnier than part of the comedy show we had seen on the ship.

The trip back to the hotel was filled with Stephanie chattering on about the fire luau and her favorite outfits and parts. Especially about the Chief and how funny he was. When we got there I took her up to the room, both of us laden down with the packages we hadn't gotten out of the car earlier. I was really glad we had bought the extra suitcase with all the gifts she bought; we were going to need it.

I gave her the black baby doll negligee I had gotten her and she accepted it reluctantly. When she came out of the bathroom changed I was lying in bed waiting for her with my grass skirt and nothing else on.

"Babe" I said to her as she came out and she looked shy, like a bridal virgin about to do the deed for the first time.

"Carlos, I can't have sex right now."

What? Why? was flitting through my head but I just waited quietly for her to explain.

"I'm on my period." she said embarrassedly.

"There is no reason we can't have sex, it all still works and it feels better for you. Sex while on your period helps with the cramps." I explained.

She looked at me astonished.

"Babe I have done this plenty of times trust me it works fine and feels good too."

"B..but doesn't it make a big mess?"

I don't know what she has been doing with Morelli these past few years but this is ridiculous that a woman of thirty who has been married doesn't know she can still have sex on her period and that it is quite pleasurable.

"No the female body is an incredible thing. When you start having sex your body stops bleeding and produces your wonderful juices that I love so much."

"Really?"

"Really, let me prove it to you."

I dragged her to me and started kissing her passionately. When I went to lay her down on the bed she protested.

"Babe it will be fine, I promise."

"Shouldn't we lay something down to protect the sheets so they don't get all bloody?"

"The sheets aren't going to get all bloody."

"Just in case." She slipped out of my arms and returned with a white hotel towel and laid it long ways on the bed and carefully positioned herself on top of it.

I started at her feet kissing and licking my way up her body and she stopped me when I got to the apex of her legs.

"Babe it will be okay."

"Carlos, I'm not very comfortable doing this in general and I am definitely not comfortable with your head between my legs because next you are going to want to kiss me again and your mouth will be all bloody and I can't do that."

"It's not going to be all bloody."

"Well it is just weird and I am not ready for that. Let's just try having sex first and if that works we will see about more things at a later date."

I climbed up her body and started kissing her again. I slowly sank into her hot depths enjoying being bare inside her. We made love the rest of the night repeatedly and she was shocked when I showed her that there was no blood on me and that the white towel she had been laying on was as white when we were through as it had been when we started. That single act had her loosening up more than anything else I did to relax her but she never could fully relax always ready to run back to the bathroom to put a tampon in.

Sunday May 30th

I had turned my alarm off for the morning and woke fully rested at 06:35 and started packing for both of us. I knew the hotel had a gym and part of me wanted to go running but I was tired of doing variations of my workouts and knew that tomorrow we would be home and I could get back to my regular routine.

At 08:00 I ordered breakfast in and woke Stephanie slowly wanting to make love to her one more time in Hawaii before we left. I made it sweet and special and kept it under twenty minutes so that we were up, even if we weren't dressed, when breakfast arrived. She took off for the shower and I joined her thinking we could be fast and eat when we were done. I started kissing her in the shower thinking one more time wouldn't hurt when she pushed me away and said she didn't want her breakfast to be that cold. I just grinned and started soaping her up.

I texted the family to gather in the lobby at 9:30 for the trip to the airport. I sent a text reminding my men to assist us with luggage and getting the family settled onto the plane. Everything went smoothly and by 10:15 my family was kissing and hugging my men goodbye. Wishing them lots of fun on their week long holiday and making plans to see them again when they returned. I knew my family would appreciate my men more after spending time with them but I hadn't expected them to become so attached.

I told my men I would see them in Trenton next Monday morning and to have a good week. They waved goodbye and I wondered with the bonus money I gave them if some of them would not come back until it was all spent. They better come back in a week, Tank was already giving me shit for letting a third of his staff have a week off at the same time without telling him in advance.

The flight was uneventful. Emile and Sabine were very attentive, turning on several movies for the kids and offering to put on a movie for the adults. Not shockingly all the women congregated around Stephanie and wedding planning began again in full force but this time Stephanie was more happily involved and giving her opinion of the pins that others were pinning. There were over a thousand pins on the wedding page and they had a rousing discussion about the dresses.

Stephanie was totally at a loss. She could imagine what she wanted but none of the dresses fit the bill. Finally my mother said. "Oshanna can sketch dresses. Let's set a date and you pick out all the parts of dresses you like and Oshanna can sketch it then we can hire a designer to make it for you."

"Oh but I don't want to be any trouble." Stephanie insisted.

"It is no trouble, it will be fun. Once we get detailed sketches of what you want then we send them out to different dressmakers to find someone that is interested and can see your vision. Then _voila_ you will have the perfect dress."

After that there was in depth discussions about different dresses and what she liked and didn't like about each one.

The pilots arranged for us to stop in a smallish airport in Missouri to get refueled and I walked to the back to sit next to Hector and discuss what was next in finishing up our trip to Colombia and more about the job I wanted him to take at RangeMan. He was surprised I wasn't giving the job to Silvio. I explained that Silvio was older and wanted to be home with his wife and kids now and didn't want the hassle of traveling. That his wife had some health issues and he wanted to stay close to home.

We discussed Antonio and where the last traces of him had been spotted in India doing new business deals. He told me the contact he had with Snark regarding the other people I had asked him to track down and that so far he had not come up with anything. We discussed me buying this extra fast airplane and the pros and cons of it. It could fly across the US on one tank of gas but the faster engines used more fuel than a normal plane flying at half the speed. We discussed modifications that could be made to it and I fully intended to explore these options when we returned to Trenton.

The plane landed smoothly at 05:18 and taxied to the warehouse we had left from eighteen days ago. In front of the warehouse was a line of black SUVs and grey murky skies with a chance of rain showed out the windows.

I hugged Julie tightly.

"Jewels, I love you so much and I am so proud of the woman you are becoming. Thank you for all the time you have spent with Stephanie and me on this trip and I hope you will have time to come out and visit this summer."

"Sure Dad. I want to come. It's been nice getting to know you and hang out with you and Stephanie. Do I get to keep my phone?" She asked expectantly.

"Yes you get to keep your phone. If you will call me once a week and text me occasionally. I'd like to stay in touch but I know you are really busy." Once I knew her schedule I would keep in touch with her regularly.

"Sure Dad. I will." Julie moved on to hugging Stephanie and I took Rachel in my arms.

"Rachel, thank you for trusting me to keep your family safe. I have a surprise for your family that is out in my vehicle."

"Carlos, I was so scared when this happened, but this has been one of the best family vacations we have ever had. Florida was nice, California was awesome but Hawaii blew it out of the water. It was really nice getting to see your parents and for the kids to get to know their cousins. I hated having your men follow me around. I have hated having to have them follow Julie around since Scrog, but now that I have gotten to know several of them I'm happy to let them shadow her."

"Yes they seem big and scary but when you get to know them most of them are good men."

"And now that you have spent more time around Julie and she around Stephanie and you I think we can arrange for her to come and visit this summer."

"Thanks Rachel, I'm glad this worked out as well as it did and we look forward to seeing her soon." I released her and turned to Ron. I shook hands with Ron.

"Ron you and Rachel are doing such a great job. I'm really proud of the young lady Julie is becoming. Thank you. She will always be more your daughter than mine and I appreciate all the years of hard work you have put into her education and her personally. It really shows that she has grown up in a healthy loving home."

"Thanks Carlos and this has been quite the adventure. I can tell you I was not pleased when this whole thing started but it has turned out quite well and I know we as a family will feel more comfortable with you and your men in the future should the need ever arise."

While I had been talking with Ron, Julie and Rachel had been saying goodbye to Stephanie and my family. Julie was making a pact with Becky and Maggie to stay in touch. Becky said she was going to start planning for Julie to come this summer. Mama and Papa hugged Julie, Freddie and Cassie and invited all of them to come and visit this summer. Freddie was saying goodbye to Ricky and Mikie and exchanging email addresses.

I got my checkbook from the car and wrote a couple of million dollar checks. Then I climbed back up onto the plane. I collected Ron and Rachel's fake IDs and RangeMan credit cards from them and asked them if they wanted to keep their phones. Rachel wanted to but Ron just wanted his old one back. I gave both of them their old ones and told Rachel to keep hers but to take it to her carrier and have her old number transferred to her new phone. I told her not to worry about Julie's phone, as long as she was allowed to have one I would pay for it. But that at any time if it needed to get cut off or anything they just needed to let me know.

Then I handed Rachel two checks and her face flushed as she handed them to Ron.

"Carlos you don't have to pay me this money." She said. I cut her off.

"It's not from me. It's money from Sergio to cover your pain and suffering for this unfortunate event. I gave you a check for Julie but don't cash it. I will be down in the next few weeks and we will start a trust fund for her that, if you want, you and Ron can manage. It will be for her college, a down payment for her first house, whatever she needs. I'll pay for her wedding when she is ready to get married but I want the rest of it to go towards her future. Rachel your check is yours to do with whatever you want. If you want my advice I would say invest it and put it towards yours and Ron's retirement. Pay off your house, buy a new car. Take care of your family but think about your future and plan for it."

"Wow, thank you Carlos." She gave me a big hug.

"Don't mention it. Rachel I could never pay you enough for you to be as good of a mom as you have been to Julie. That is something that is priceless to me. I am starting to grow up now and maturing and ready to really be part of Julie's life, but you and Ron have been there for her every day for the last twelve years. While I have been off doing my army thing and getting my life together. There is no way I can say thank you enough."

I went through the same routine with _Abuela_ Sanja.

"Keep the credit card. If ever you need to use it you can always have it as a back-up."

"No Carlos, I don't need it."

" _Abuela_ keep it for me. It will give me a measure of peace to know that if you ever need anything or have any emergency it will be there for you."

"Fine" She huffed a little.

"Do you like the phone?"

"Yes now that I have gotten used to it I like it. The camera and battery are much better than my old phone."

"You keep it and cancel your old phone plan. If you want to transfer your old number over you do so, but you keep your phone on my plan and I will pay for it."

"Carlos I can pay for my own phone."

"I know you can especially after I give you this check, but you took care of me for years. You paid for the roof over my head, the food on my plate, the electricity that kept me cool. You straightened me out and got me on a better path for my life. The least you can do is let me pay for your phone."

I handed her the check.

"This is from Sergio Valentino. He is sorry for the trouble he caused and gave me money to give to each of the women he threatened. This is to make your golden years a little more golden." I told her.

"Carlos, I can't accept this."

"You have to; it's not my money it is yours. Remember from lunch. Sergio paid me plenty of money and sharing it is just a little way for Sergio to apologize for what he did and tried to do."

She ripped the check down the middle.

"I'll just send you another one for Christmas. All the other women including Mama, my sisters, Rachel and Julie are getting that money. I'll keep giving it to you till you accept it." I kissed her on her cheek and gave her a big hug. "I love you _Abuela_ , thank you for coming with us."

"Carlos it was my pleasure. You gave me so much on this trip. You got me back in touch with my family and that to me is worth more than any money you could give me." She kissed me on my cheek and turned to find Stephanie.

"You my dear are so good for my Carlos. I'm so glad he found you and decided to keep you. Come down to Miami and I will show you my photo albums and tell you stories about our little Carlito."

Mama pulled Rachel and Ron aside and said that she would like to take all three kids for at least one week over the summer and they could go on a vacation for themselves. Saying that now she has gotten to know them they are family too and she can't go years without seeing them again. Rachel dabbed at her tears and agreed.

I went up and thanked the captain and co-pilot for their services and told them a bonus would be coming. My family had slowly been getting off the plane and my men from the SUVs had been unloading all of the luggage and loading them up into the vehicles. I led Stephanie off the plane and went out to make sure the Martine's and _Abuela_ Sanja's luggage stayed on board the plane.

To be continued….

A/N: Thank you all for your reviews! They are all loved and appreciated. Only one more chapter left. Here is where I need your feedback. I have an outline for a follow up story to Saving all my Woman. It would cover the summer, the wedding and the aftermath. Do you think I should write it or do you think I should write something new? Please let me know what you would prefer.

As always big THANK YOU to my beta Sassysaint I really appreciate all your suggestions!

Second Big THANK YOU to my sister, Jonelle. Thank you for fixing all my many little mistakes.


	36. Chapter 36 Return to the Beginning

Chapter 36 Return to the Beginning

Sunday May 30th

Newark NJ

 _Mama pulled Rachel and Ron aside and said that she would like to take all three kids for at least one week over the summer and they could go on a vacation for themselves. Saying that now she has gotten to know them they are family too and she can't go years without seeing them again. Rachel dabbed at her tears and agreed._

 _I went up and thanked the captain and co-pilot for their services and told them a bonus would be coming. My family had slowly been getting off the plane and my men from the SUV's had been unloading all of the luggage and loading them up into the vehicles. I led Stephanie off the plane and went out to make sure the Martine's and Abuela Sanja's luggage stayed on board the plane._

With the low hanging smog and grey skies, I couldn't tell if it was going to rain so I checked my phone and found a 30% chance of rain for the area. We found Tank in the first SUV, I helped Stephanie in the back and climbed up into the front. Below my feet were the two cardboard boxes of phones, ID's and cards. I picked up my checkbook and I started writing out checks., one million dollars to each woman. I was doing it to make them all feel better, to put it towards their retirement but also so I could give Stephanie a million dollars of her own and she would have to accept it.

There was nothing new in Trenton to discuss and I talked with Tank about having a private meeting after our workouts but before the 08:00 morning meeting. I told him about my ideas to expand and that we need to do some more major hiring and training. We were quiet for a while and Stephanie broke the silence.

"So Tank how was everything in Trenton while we have been traveling all over the world?"

"Fine, nothing to report. How was your trip?" Tank answered.

"Fantastic. If you don't mind heavily muscled men in black following you everywhere. Seriously though the shorts and tank tops helped a lot. It was much better than the black pants they normally wear, making them look like they were on vacation too and I think most of the guys had fun with everything that we did." Stephanie was light.

"So where all have you been for the last two weeks?" Tank asked like he didn't know.

"Florida, California, Alaska for pretend and a cruise in Hawaii."

"Sounds like a good vacation." He continued the conversation.

"It was the best vacation I have ever been on. I got to meet Carlos' family and spend a lot of time with Julie and Look!" She held out her hand. "We got engaged." Tank looked over at her hand and raised an eyebrow at me. I guess I had never showed him the ring.

"What was the best part?" Tank continued to probe.

"Universal Studios in California was the best. We went on so many rides so many times. Julie, Becky, Maggie and Cassie were with us one day and it was the most fun. Watching Carlos kick all his men's asses on the beach. You know three on one he still won, it was amazing to watch. Hawaii was all around amazing. We did so much stuff once Carlos came back, saw volcanos, climbed down a gorge to swim at a waterfall, went zip lining and yesterday he took Julie and me skydiving. That was unbelievable! What a rush! I've never been so high before and we stepped out on the ledge and I was going to tell the guy to go back in that I wasn't doing it and suddenly he jumped and we were flipping through the air and then he spun me a few times and it was so amazing. Then Carlos caught up with us and went down part way with me. Then he pulled the chute and we drifted down together before the ground came rushing up at us. I thought we were going to crash for sure and then we slowed up and just landed on our feet." She took a deep breath and was flushed again just like she was after the jump.

"Sounds like you had fun."

"Tank we had so much fun. Carlos' family had fun too and Carlos' mom is helping me plan the wedding. Oh Tank you have to come to the wedding, it's going to be beautiful."

"I think I'm going to be the best man so yeah little girl, I'll be there." I'm glad he remembered, I hadn't formally asked him again. But we had made a pact years ago when we were in the armed services and Rodriguez got married that if we ever got married (again for me) we would be each other's best man.

Stephanie was chattering on about the decorations. "There are going to be balloons everywhere. You should see what they can do with balloons these days Tank, arches and elaborate table decorations and wheels, and tall stands of balloons. It was Julie's idea to use balloons and I have been shocked at how much they can do. The wedding colors are going to be blue, black and white but now that I have been looking at more decorations I have been debating changing it to silver. Carlos what do you think? White or silver?"

She brought me out of my musings and I gave her the most diplomatic answer I could. "I think you need to ask my mama and sisters. They decorate for these things, they will know better than me. I just want you to have colors you are happy with."

Finally we were pulling up in front of my parent's home and because we were first we got to park right out front.

"Tank pull up a ways. Let's let my sisters with all their kids park in front of the house." I suggested.

We didn't have to get luggage out of the car, so I helped Stephanie out and collected the boxes and checks and waited for my parents to get out and unlock the house. Slowly my family migrated into the house and I waited patiently in the living room for everyone. The mothers all collected their little ones into the family room and set them all to reading and playing with the understanding that we weren't going to be here long enough to watch a movie.

When everyone was gathered back into the living room I got their attention.

"I'm going to pass out your old phones. You are welcome to keep your new phone but take them to your carrier and transfer your old number to them. If you're not going to keep them I would like them back." I walked around the room passing out phones and collecting the new ones. Overwhelmingly the women wanted to keep the new phones except Angelia and all the men except Julio wanted their old phones back. My dad gave me the satellite phone and told me he would have felt lost without it but it turned out he didn't really need to be in touch with the office every day.

I got the box of credit cards and went back around collecting up the RangeMan cards and fake IDs and giving them back their own cards. Then I got to the checks.

"Sergio gave me money as an apology for the trouble he caused and I wanted to share this money with all of you, the women he threatened."

I walked around the room handing checks out to Angelia, Oshanna, Leyla, Isabella, Mama, Stephanie and _Abuela_ Rosa. As I walked Angelia asked, "How much money did he give you?"

"I walked away with over 50 million." I explained.

"Fifty million and I am only getting one? Shouldn't it be split a little more evenly?" Angelia suggested.

"Yeah, there were ten women. We should be splitting the pie equally." Oshanna insisted.

"Girls be thankful for what you are getting." Papa scolded.

"Why should we each only get one million and Carlos gets to keep forty million?" Angelia questioned.

"He probably said we were only supposed to get one million each." Isabella offered.

"How much of this was really for us and how much of this money was for you?" Oshanna demanded of me.

"He didn't actually specify who it was for. It was for the pain and suffering for all of the women." I answered.

If this was only about my spoiled sisters I would be firm, but the more I gave to them the more I could give to Stephanie. Hell I would give Stephanie one hundred million dollars just to see what she would do but I don't think she would take it. But if I give my sisters each millions of dollars I couldn't very well leave Stephanie out.

"Fifty million dollars divided by ten women is five million dollars each." Angelia said smugly.

"Don't be greedy girls." Papa admonished. "Carlos is being very generous with you. He didn't have to tell you about the money or give you anything."

"Carlos is being selfish. He is keeping most of the money for himself and only giving us a little bit so he doesn't feel guilty." Angelia continued her rant.

"Fine" I interrupted. "I have plenty of money. I don't need this money. Tear up your checks I will write you new ones. My checkbook is in the car. I'll be right back."

I was smiling to myself as I walked out to the car. Stephanie followed me out and rummaged around in the back digging through her luggage. I had to manage this right. I debated with myself the whole way out to the car. There was over three hundred million dollars left in the business account. Not counting the three billion eight hundred million in the personal account. I debated as I sat waiting for Stephanie to find what she was looking for. I could set my whole family up for life, but I don't know if I would be doing them any favors. I would rather give them a small amount now and let them learn how to manage it. Then continue to give them more money throughout their lives.

I know Oshanna, Angelia and Julio will be inclined to spend all the money they get, so giving them a lot now would not help their futures. If Stephanie gets too much I think she would be afraid of it and not touch it but if I give the same amount to all of the members of my family she will have to accept. I walk back in quickly and Stephanie walked beside me carrying leis and necklaces she got for the girls.

I sat down on the couch next to Angelia, who had to scoot over to make room and started writing new checks. This time for five million apiece. I wrote the first one for A _buela_ Rosa and handed the check to Angelia. As I tore them out I passed them to Angelia who passed them around the room so everyone could see them. I wrote the next check for Mama, then Leyla, Stephanie, Isabella, who was sitting next to me in the chair, Angelia and lastly Oshanna. As I did this Stephanie went around the room putting leis around everyone's necks and letting them choose necklaces. She asked Leyla to pick some for Becky and Maggie.

"Hey bro, seriously I didn't make a big deal when you gave all my sisters thousands of dollars but you can't give them millions of dollars and not give anything to me." Julio asked hopefully.

"There is only three million left, do you want it?" I asked, knowing I had planned to give him money but not sure of the excuse I was going to use.

"Sure" He looked relieved. I wrote him out a check.

"Hey wait a minute. My check is made out to Maria and Javier Manoso." Oshanna whined.

"That's right. Mama, Papa, I didn't ask you but I am giving you Oshanna's money to manage. You can help her invest it and spend it. I would like to see you go back to college Oshanna. If you quit your job and go back to college they can set you up a monthly amount for your bills but I am not giving you five million dollars to blow. You'll quit your job, move into a big nice apartment in Manhattan and spend it drinking and partying and in three years have nothing left."

"Would not." She pouted.

"Good then you can explain that to Mama and Papa as you show them how wisely you will spend it. Now I want everyone to look closely at their checks. Does anyone notice something odd?" I asked. There was quiet as everyone stared at their checks.

"They are dated for next week." Leyla spoke up.

"Yes they are dated for next week. Do not try to deposit them this week. The money is coming from overseas and is not in my business account yet. So wait until next Monday to deposit them. I am running the money through RangeMan and paying you like a paycheck that I did not withhold taxes from. You will need to talk to a CPA to find out how this will affect your taxes for the year. If the taxes are too high I can pay you in smaller amounts over the next 10 or 15 years. I can even keep the money and invest it for you. I have a great investment guy that I'm going to get on board full time and he can invest your money for you."

"Carlos are you giving us all your money?" Isabella asked concerned.

"Isabella none of this is my money so I am glad to give it to you. I just want to see all of you invest it and make it count for your future and your kids' futures. Honestly I was only planning on giving you some of the money now and then invest it and give you more as time went on. Ultimately the money was going to be all for you but it's a lot of money for each of you and I would like to see you able to create a good future with it."

"Thank you, Carlos." Leyla said. "You didn't have to give any of us anything. You are the one who did all the work. You went all the way to face Sergio and you would have been well with in your rights to keep all the money for yourself."

"Leyla I'm not the one who got threatened with kidnapping, rape and torture. I'm not the one who had to take my kids out of school and your husband out of work to run and hide for your lives. It would have been easier if he had come after me and not you. But it was you that he came after and the money is the least of what you deserve."

"Well at least let us pay for the vacation we just had. That had to cost you a pretty penny and it was a lot of fun for us. My kids loved it. They have never been to California or Hawaii before and chances are before this trip and this money we probably would never go. This year we were planning to take them to Washington, DC. Educational but not nearly as much fun as Universal Studios and Disneyland." Isabella suggested.

"I'm glad that the kids had fun on the trip. Even though you always had big men in black following you around." I qualified.

"Don't get down on your guys, Carlos, we love your men. Hal and Tony were wonderful with the kids. All of your guys were so hard working hauling our luggage everywhere, carrying the little kids when they were asleep, they were quiet but when they talked they were very polite." Leyla said.

"They protected us, leading and following always silently, our saviors and sentinels. We're very grateful for all of your guys. Cal and Red were wonderful. I'm going to want to know when their birthdays are because we are not going to forget them." Isabella elucidated.

"I want to do a special party for them. They made us feel safe and made our trip much more relaxing." Mama elaborated.

"Thank you for getting Lester and Sport to be my bodyguards they were both very good with me." Oshanna encouraged.

"They were just doing their job." I explained.

"They did more than their job, they helped us every step of the way." Mama insisted.

"Well I'm glad you appreciated all they did. They worked hard." I confirmed.

"They saved our lives, more than once." Leyla finished and I had to acknowledge it was true. From the beginning protecting them till I could get them out of town, finding the trackers in the luggage and shoes, the midnight ambush on the island, the attack in California that took six of the women, the gunfire in Hilo was the deadliest direct attack that could have taken many of my women. I shuddered, all he would have had to do was level that rocket at the middle vehicle and the blast would have killed all the women and a good number of my men. I don't play what if games in my mind, it is a futile exercise, I focus on what IS and I quickly banished that thought and focused on the women in my mother's living room.

"Let's have a big party and invite them all. Maybe one with black and blue colors, a pretty white dress and lots of balloons." I suggested.

"We aren't going to turn your wedding into a thank you party for your men." Mama scoffed. "They worked hard and we need to show them we appreciate it."

"I gave them all a paid week off in Hawaii with a nice bonus to thank them for all their hard work." I replied, thinking what else did they want?

"Carlos, we'll throw a family party, where they can come and relax and eat some good home cooked Cuban food." Mama said. "It's the least I can do after all they did, putting their lives on the line day after day to protect my family."

"Fine Mama, you ladies plan it and I will make sure my men have the time off."

I walked over to Stephanie but faced my family. "My men will drive everyone back home. I promised you to return you safely back home and you are all now safe to return to your lives." I finished. I took Stephanie in my arms and said. "Ready to go home Babe?"

She looked down at the check she was holding in her hands and nodded to me. Mama got off the loveseat and hugged me and Stephanie and the whole room turned into one big hug fest. I said goodbye to _Abuela_ Rosa and told her I would help her with all that money. She told me she didn't need the money, she would save it for the _nietos_. She hugged and kissed Stephanie and in the first English I had ever heard her speak she said. "Welcome to the family _Estefania_." _(grandkids, Stephanie)_

Tank had been leaning against the wall and led the way out to the SUV. Stephanie was surprised when I got in the back seat with her. It was a quiet drive back to Haywood. Stephanie kept staring at the check in her hands.

"What are you going to do with the check Babe?"

"Well I'm not sure. I need a new car, but with my car luck I don't want to buy a new, new car. But maybe something nicer than I have bought in the past. And I saw a new cage for Rex that I was thinking about getting him for Christmas that has tubes and things for him to crawl in."

"That's nice. Rex will like that."

"It would be nice to have a house to live in and not be in a little apartment all day, but a little apartment is about my level to easily keep clean."

"Babe no matter where we live I will hire Ella to clean and cook for us."

"Maybe if I had my own washer and dryer again I would do my own laundry. I used to do mine and The Dick's laundry when I had my own machines."

"No need. Ella has industrial washers in the building. She can do your laundry with mine."

"So I don't know what I'm going to do with it all."

"Well realize now that a big chunk is going to be taken for taxes. You'll have about three million left."

"Wow, so I will have money to invest."

"Babe my guy Steve is a master at investing money. He has helped me build up quite the portfolio. He can help you too."

"Okay… This just feels weird. Usually I'm just grateful for being rescued and feel like I owe you for rescuing me. This time you rescued me, took me on a whirlwind vacation and then gave me millions of dollars. Doesn't seem fair to you."

"Babe you are going to be my wife and I'll always be fair and honest with you."

"Yes so what are you trying to say?"

"Sergio didn't give me money willingly. I took it from him and I took a lot more than 50 million dollars. That's just what I felt good telling my family about so that they don't know I am the greedy bastard than I am."

"So how much did you take him for?"

"A lot more than 50 million."

"How much?"

"Tomorrow Babe, we will go to the bank and get your accounts all situated. Then I will show you everything."

"I didn't want to ask because I didn't want to know because I know you made it seem like Sergio's still alive to your family. But I need you to be honest with me."

"Yeah?"

"Is Sergio still alive?"

"Sergio is lost and will never be found."

"What does that mean?"

"It means I don't want my family to know the truth, so I don't want to tell you because then you will have to lie to them."

"Oh okay. I know what you are trying to say."

"I'll never lie to you Babe but knowing the truth may make you have to lie to others on my behalf and I don't want to have to ask you to do that."

"Alright I'll let it go."

"So tomorrow we can get boxes and pack up your apartment."

"Tomorrow?"

"Unless you want to do it today?"

"No, I just want to go home and unpack."

"We can do it tomorrow after the bank."

"Ranger there is something that you're not telling me. You have been looking at me with that intense expression on your face like you need to tell me something but you don't know how."

"Babe"

"Don't Babe me. I know it is something important."

"We've never discussed your safety going forward."

"What safety?"

"As my wife there will be threats made on your life. At least for a while you are going to need to have a guard go with you where ever you go."

"You mean for work?"

"For work, for Pino's or Shorty's, for lunch at Cluck-n-a-Bucket, for the mall. Everywhere but inside your parent's house. They can stay outside if you go visit your parents."

"That's just because you know my grandma will molest them if they go inside."

I smirked but said "Babe this is serious. I carry two guns and a knife for a reason. I always keep my back to the wall and take back up when I go out to work. We are going to have a threat level chart for you like yellow, orange, red and depending on the threat level you will have to take precautions and that includes men to protect you."

"So what is yellow?"

"We can discuss it in detail back at my office tomorrow. I don't have them all memorized and it will be easier to discuss if we can see it all."

I needed time to work out how I was going to break it to her. She knew I was putting her off but I had a good reason. I wanted at minimum a pair of men on her all the time but if that was my yellow she was not going to like my orange and red and she may bring up that there was no white, blue or green on my scale.

We got back to Haywood and carried my one clothing bag, leaving the box of electronics and Sergio's go bags behind so I could help carry Stephanie's bags. Then to my surprise Tank took her big bags and I grabbed the box of electronics, piling the phones and credit cards on top.

Ella must have been made aware of our arrival because my apartment was readied and had fresh flowers when we arrived on seven. She was waiting in the foyer to greet us and take our bags. Dinner was in the oven staying warm while she took the luggage to the bedroom to unpack. Stephanie followed her in, insisting that only half her clothes were dirty and wanting to handle them.

Ella, understanding that Stephanie was used to doing things herself, offered to go serve up dinner while she put all her dirty clothes in the hamper. Stephanie was still in the bedroom unpacking when Ella came out with two plates of baked tilapia with a light crust and seasoned sautéed vegetables with wild rice. She returned with two glasses and an open bottle of wine to let it breathe. Then she went into the bedroom to investigate what Stephanie was doing.

"I'll unpack those things dear." She told Stephanie to take her mind off trying to figure out where to put everything. "Besides I know what room I have made in his closet and bathroom for you."

Minutes later a flustered Stephanie came out and I pulled out her chair so she could have a seat.

"I feel weird having her do things for me." Stephanie finally broke the silence.

"It's easier to let her. In many ways she thinks of this apartment as her own to take care of. She knows where she wants everything kept and organizes it so that it is easy to find but has its own place. I'm sure she just wants to get your things settled into the places she has organized for you. She knew you were coming to stay so she probably already made space in my bathroom and closet for your things." My reiterating what Ella had said calmed Stephanie a little.

After dinner I went in my office to do some work and transfer all the money I needed to cover all the expenses and checks I had written from the out of country accounts. Stephanie took a walk through the closet and bathroom to see where everything was put. She walked back through the kitchen to talk to Rex, give him some crunchies, a grape and tell him a little about her trip.

When we got to bed she was wearing the red lacy number. Ella had put the box I had yet to give Stephanie on the top shelf of my closet. I climbed into bed with her and pulled her close. It had been a long and grueling day of travel and I just wanted to hold her for a few minutes. It didn't take long for my body to start reacting to hers and I began to kiss her intensely but she turned away from me.

I don't know how the cop had managed it but she really dislikes having sex on her period and there was no way I was going to skip having sex for five days in a row every month so this was something that I was going to get her over quickly. I got a towel and laid her out on it to make her more comfortable and began making love to her again.

This was our first night in what was going to be our real bed, our marriage bed, and I wanted to christen it spectacularly. But after the second round Stephanie passed out, falling fully asleep and I pulled her to me and in her barely conscious state she wrapped around me. I was contented to have her in my arms, in my bed, from this night till forever.

Monday May 31 05:00

It was so great to be up at my normal time doing my usual routine in the gym. I hit the weights hard to get my body back in shape and was pleased to find it responding to my usual workout as if I hadn't missed any days.

At 07:00 I met with Tank. We discussed the money I now had and how to best invest in the company to make it grow. We needed commanders and we discussed who within our current ranks at different branches had the makings of running a branch. We looked at the finances and started contacting my current partners to work on buying them out of the company.

I showed him the market research I had and we decided that Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Diego were ripe and ready markets for new branches. We discussed a more ambitious nationwide expansion but I made it clear that maintaining the high RangeMan standard was more important than fast expansions. He reminded me that the Army trained hundreds of new Rangers a year and that was not counting the SEALs, Green Berets or Delta Force. There was a huge pool of men out there who could be tapped for this kind of work and needed jobs.

I put forth that we would start with these three branches and then reevaluate. Right now if the four branches we had could train twenty to thirty men in two months that would be one hundred and twenty men and we could open three branches with forty men each in three months. We discussed the specific needs of account researchers like Rodriguez that finds all our accounts for each office and decided to hire three for each new office to grow the accounts faster than we had in our current branches.

We discussed opening our company to hiring women. There was no ban on women, just the only few that had applied didn't meet the company standards. After all there are female Army Rangers and we decided that would continue to be a case by case review. Company policy is that they would have to pass all the same requirements as the men and we passed a company policy of no dating within the workforce.

"Good thing that you are marrying Bomber now, otherwise she couldn't work here."

"She doesn't seem to want to work here anyway."

"Yeah but she has worked here on and off for the last two years. You couldn't keep dating her under these new rules."

"I think that Bomber is exempt from all rules and I am going to write that into company policy because I want her to work here in the future and I am never going to require her to meet company standards for fitness and the fire range. I will make requirements that I think she can live up to and when she does finally join the company I will work with her to meet those standards."

"Like she has to eat at least two donuts a day?" Tank harrassed.

"Like she has to spend thirty minutes on the treadmill four times a week and spend thirty minutes lifting weights three days a week and she has to spend time on personal defense training thirty minutes three times a week. The men are required to spend six hours a week in the gym I will make it four for her."

"Not to discount your math but you just set up five hours a week for her." Tank added.

"I will let her pick and choose what she will do but this will make her do cardio, weight training and personal defense every week and she will feel more in charge because she gets to pick when she does what." I clarified.

"And the gun range?" Tank questioned.

"Half an hour of fire arms training twice a week not including time to clean the guns."

"The men have to do an hour a week so that is fair for her and them. She has to be kept to a standard reasonable for her and the company and I think those requirements will keep everyone happy." Tank agreed.

"I'll start making the morning meetings when things are settled with Stephanie. For the next few days I am here and available but I am going to be spending all my time getting her settled in. I need a rotation for Bomber patrols starting Wednesday or Thursday."

"Weekends too?"

"Schedule every day and then we will see. I'm used to working weekends but that may change. If she is taking Sundays off from the bonds office I may start taking Sundays off."

"She's still going to be working at the bonds office?"

"Until she decides she is done with that job. I've always supported her in it and I can't tell her she can't do it anymore. I'm just hoping that with some support staff that are better trained than Lula she won't get in as much trouble."

I called Ella to bring up breakfast when she was ready and let her know that I hadn't gotten Stephanie up yet. I was surprised to find Stephanie awake when I arrived back on seven. Sitting on the side of the bed looking at the check like it was an alien in her hands that was talking to her.

"Getting any answers?" I asked as I walked in the room.

"No, it just doesn't seem real."

"It's real Babe. What are you going to do with it?"

"Save it, invest it. I don't know. I've never had more than a few thousand dollars to my name at a time. I don't know what I will do with it." I took it out of her hands and laid it back on the bedside stand.

"You don't have to decide today. Just let it burn in the back of your mind and you will come up with answers."

"I think I want to pay for Lula to finish going to night school if she wants and set up college funds for my sister's kids and maybe buy them a house."

"All good things. I know the longer you have it the more things you will think of." I encouraged as I took her hand and led her to the shower.

I was finally able to show her how good I can be in the shower again. The shower on the cruise ship did not have enough space to work in. When we finished and got clean, breakfast was waiting for us on the dining room table. Fresh fruit and scrambled egg bake in a covere glass dish. The scrambled egg bake had vegetables and cheese but was delicious as Stephanie let me know, moaning her way through the meal.

It was a regular sunny morning in Trenton with the smog beginning to build over the highways and city. We drove hand in hand to the bank. Stephanie had her check in her other hand even though she couldn't deposit it yet, she didn't seem to want to let it out of her sight. We were waiting at the bank as they opened the front doors. We got an accounts specialist who added Stephanie Plum to my bank account and then opened up a special checking account we named The Manoso Wedding and added my mama so she could have a debit card for the wedding. Stephanie gasped as I transferred half a million dollars into the account.

"I told you one million dollars Babe, so I will transfer the rest of the money when we get home."

'Carlos we don't need to spend that much on a wedding."

"It's at your disposal. I'm up for whatever you choose. I'll leave that money in there and if the balance starts running low I'll add more."

"I'm thinking this wedding won't cost more than one hundred thousand dollars and I think even that is a little high, so we won't need more than that."

I showed her the balance in my checking account, only about twenty thousand dollars.

"Babe most of my money is in investments. I'll be honest I cleaned out one account for this trip we just took but I will transfer it all back soon."

"Carlos I can give you some of the money back. I don't need all the millions you gave me."

"That is all your money Babe. I didn't take any from my sister's and I'm not taking any from you."

"But Carlos."

"Stephanie let's talk about this more when we get back home." I admonished, cutting her off but not wanting her to feel bad. I just couldn't keep discussing such things in front of the customer service lady who was looking too interested in our conversation.

We finished the banking and I took her to the super store where I bought twenty five boxes in three different sizes and packing tape. I loaded them up in the back of the Cayenne, which I specifically drove today to get her moved. I held her hand again as we drove and she was quiet in thought as the air conditioner blew keeping us cool even as the day heated up.

Upon arriving at her building, we talked to Dillon her super. She had forgotten because she hadn't had to sign any paperwork but her lease automatically renewed in April and she had another year on it.

"Damn I was hoping to be done with this place." She whispered.

"Babe actually your apartment is quite nice, it has new carpeting and the walls are freshly painted. What if you lease it to your grandmother for a small fee? Something she can afford like $50 a month and then she can move in and take care of the place."

"Oh Carlos that's a great idea. My grandmother can move in here and my dad can have his bathroom back." She smiled big. "My parents will love it. Speaking of my parents, we need to go let them know we are back and I need to show them my engagement ring and," she sighed heavily, "talk about the wedding."

"Do you want to pack up your stuff first? I mean we are already here." I offered.

"No let's go talk to my parents and grandmother. If everyone agrees we can get my mom to help pack my grandmother. Then we can move her in here and I will get my stuff out of my bedroom, I'll leave everything else here for her. If she doesn't want the place I will move everything out and find someone to sublet it for the rest of the year."

The clouds were starting to gather in the husky sky turning brown with pollution. I have never minded living in Jersey before but maybe in the future we could move somewhere the skies were a beautiful blue all day. When we pulled up at her parent's house her mother and grandmother were at the front door waiting.

"That is too spooky. How do they even know we are back in town much less that we would be coming over to visit?" Stephanie asked before getting out of the car.

"Hi Mom" she said as we got to the front porch. I have always been aware that the Plum family is not a touchy feely family. Where my family would be hugging and kissing on the porch, Mrs. Plum just stands aside and holds the door open for us to pass. Grandma Mazur leads us into the kitchen where she starts getting out coffee cups.

"Have a seat." Mrs. Plum directs us as she gets out the remains of last night's chocolate cake. Stephanie understood this, love by way of food. This is how they communicate their feelings for each other. "So how was the trip?" she asks as she starts a new pot of coffee.

"Wonderful. We all had a good time." Stephanie answered.

"Well that's what I heard. It seemed like a terrible thing you leaving town because men were after you but it's nice that you had fun." Helen said. She set several plates on the table and began passing them out when she stood and looked directly at Stephanie. "So where is the ring?" She asked as if it was not plainly on Stephanie's hand.

Stephanie held out her hand and her mother grasped it and turned it back and forth looking closely at it.

"Well it is definitely beautiful. I heard you picked the ring out all by yourself Carlos." She said bringing over coffee cups and setting one in front of each of us.

Uh oh, she has been talking to someone in my family and I'll bet I know who. My mother probably made first contact as soon as she ushered the last of the family out of her house.

"Yes ma'am." I answered quickly. "If you don't mind I would like a glass of water." I told her.

"Stephanie that ring is a pip!" Grandma Mazur said. "That's a big rock. How many karats is that?"

"Three."

"So how long have you had this ring but you only now got around to asking Stephanie to marry you?" Mrs. Plum the inquisitor was on duty.

"When I bought it she was with Morelli and I wasn't going to break them up. But I was hoping one day when they were on one of their off stages I would get my chance." I explained.

"But then you got her to break up with him long distance. What kind of way is that to break up with a longtime boyfriend? I know it had to be you that talked her into that because she was raised with better manners." Helen demanded.

"Mom I broke up with Joe on my own. Carlos had nothing to do with it." Stephanie insisted.

"But long distance? You've been together for years! The least you could do was wait till you were back home and let him explain." Helen seemed sincere.

"Mom he's been sleeping around with other women. It started when we were broken up but then he got me to agree to have an open relationship where we could date other people if we wanted. Turns out his kind of dating is in the bedroom. I call that cheating but he doesn't see it that way." Stephanie was adamant.

"Well his mother said he will stop once you commit to him again." Helen was persistent if nothing else.

"Mom I'm engaged. I'm not going to give Morelli another chance. Besides the more I look back at our relationship, I realize it was never going to work. I am never going to be the stay at home mother of four that he wants, cooking dinner every night and having it on the table at six. We would only have made each other miserable." I was glad to hear Stephanie be honest about her relationship with Morelli. I knew it would never work because if it was going to work it would have been working and not constantly breaking up.

"Are you certain? Because even after all you've done running off with Carlos here, he is willing to take you back." Helen continued.

"I'm positive. It is over. Carlos is the man I love. He is the only man for me." Stephanie stood up for me and our relationship.

"In that case, Maria said that we can order save the date cards right away and get them out by next week, then we can get your invitations ordered. Those take a few weeks and then we will have a month to get them out. We have already been counting up all the family and there are well over two hundred people." Helen was cutting cake, handing a piece to Stephanie and had instantly switched gears. All her previous questions made it seem like she wanted Stephanie to get back together with Morelli and I was about to speak up but now she seemed totally into planning a wedding. I took Stephanie's hand and held it, letting her know I am here for her.

"Mrs. Plum. I'm so glad you have been in contact with my mother. That is great." I wanted to foster Helen calling my mother instead of Stephanie.

"Yes she called last night as soon as she got settled in from the trip." She offered me a piece but I just put my hand up and shook my head and she put the plate in front of Grandma Mazur.

"Stephanie and I have decided that we are going to leave most of the decision making up to you and my mom. My sisters want to help and Stephanie's sister is welcome to help too. But Stephanie and I are going to take a backseat in the planning. We just want to show up and get married and now that the Church is decided we will let you work the rest of the details out with my mother."

"Oh but it is Stephanie's special day. We have to have her input." she insisted, cutting a slice for herself.

"If you have specific questions text her but we came over here to discuss other pressing matters." I was turning the direction of this meeting.

"Oh, what is going on?" Helen questioned as she went back into the kitchen for the just brewed coffee.

"Well Stephanie has agreed to move in with me, but her lease is not up again until next April." I started.

"Grandma I was going to offer you my apartment to live in for the rest of the year. I'll keep paying the rent so it will be rent free for you." Stephanie offered. They all doctored their coffee as they spoke.

"Damn skippy! I would love that." Grandma said excitedly.

"Are you sure about this Stephanie? Moving in is a big step and one that really should not happen till after the wedding." My mother admonished.

"Mom we really want to start living together but that is not why I am doing it. I am doing it because it is the safest place for me to be. It is a secured, monitored building. Nobody can break in, no one can kidnap me, no one can blow it up. The apartment is locked down, only a few people can get in and I will be completely safe there."

"You will be safe there?"

"Yeah Mom, and I know me being safe is important to you."

"It is. You know I worry so much about you and your job. It will be a relief to know you are safe at least some of the time."

"That will be great. Then I can come over and visit and see the men with all the great packages." Grandma said.

I winced.

"Actually the building is locked up tight. It would be better if Stephanie visited you at your new place. If you want we have some boxes in the car we could get you all packed up and moved over today." I encouraged.

"Grandma the one thing you will have to do is go grocery shopping. I cleaned out my fridge before I left and there literally is no food in the apartment." Stephanie explained.

"No problem, Helen can take me shopping on the way over."

The women continued to make small talk as they ate their cake. I got a stack of boxes out of the car and we all trooped up the stairs to pack Grandma Mazur's room. I mostly stood in the doorway while the three women worked. Carrying out each box as soon as they got them filled. In just over an hour they had the room packed. Then Helen reminded Edna of the boxes of stuff she still had in the garage. We filled the Cayenne full and the back of Helen's car and still there were more boxes. I promised to come back over to get the rest but got the women to agree we had enough stuff to get her settled for the next week at least.

When we got to the apartment we carried up the rest of the empty boxes and I got Stephanie to start packing up her stuff while I unloaded Edna's things into the living room. When all the boxes were brought up Stephanie had only packed three boxes and half her closet was still full. I took a box into her bathroom and emptied everything into the box. I was glad I had packed as much stuff as I had to go on our little vacation because it was less that we had to pack and move now.

We were almost done with Stephanie's things when the women arrived with groceries. I don't know that Edna is use to shopping for one because after they each carried a load I made three more trips of just groceries. Then I made quite a few more trips with boxes. When I was done Stephanie was finished with her packing and I made several more trips carrying her things down while she helped the women unpack and put away the groceries.

It was past lunch time and the women insisted on making us some turkey sandwiches with potato salad from the deli. When all the groceries were put away we said our goodbyes and headed back to Haywood. Once there it was simply a few more trips for Stephanie and me to carry everything up to our apartment. I could have easily had a few of my men do it in one trip but Stephanie could use the exercise and I like to encourage her in all the exercising I can.

We were unpacking her boxes.

"Babe don't be surprised and please don't be offended if Ella moves your things around. Like I said before, she thinks of this apartment as her responsibility and she will move everything wherever she thinks is best."

"Maybe I should just let her unpack these boxes then. I still have three left and I don't know where I am going to put everything."

"Are there more things that you don't need or wear that you can get rid of?"

"I've already started another box of stuff to give away but-"

"Babe you're going to want to leave room in your closet for all the new shoes and clothes Ella is going to buy for you."

"New clothes?"

"Yeah, all I let her buy for me and my men is black. Black uniforms and black dress clothes. When she realizes she can buy you pretty dresses and shirts in a variety of colors your closet is going to explode."

"She's going to buy me new clothes?"

"You can count on it. So get rid of any old clothes and make room for new clothes." I encouraged.

Fifteen minutes later she had two boxes of stuff to get rid of and was throwing away a lot of the old products and stuff that had been under her bathroom counter.

I got a beep on my office phone. "Sir there has been a delivery by personal messenger from your lawyer's office."

"I'll be right down."

"Babe I have to get something from the front desk." I told her as I left the apartment.

I could have had a man bring it up, but the front desk was always supposed to be manned during business hours and everyone else is busy doing their work. I'm just hanging out with my soon to be wife and this paperwork is part of what is going to help me get her settled.

I was back minutes later with the brown envelope and I went in my office to read it over. It was laid out exactly as I had asked. I went back into the bedroom and sat back on the bed watching Stephanie wrestle with the last of her clothes. At this point more clothes were going into the giveaway boxes than into the closet and I was pleased. It was one of Ella's guilty pleasures to shop and I wanted to give her the green light to buy clothes for Stephanie.

"Babe take a break. You can come back to this. I have some paperwork I want to go over with you."

She heaved a big sigh.

"I'm almost done." She insisted.

"Babe you have half a box left and you can work on it while you think about this."

"What is it?"

"Paperwork from my attorney."

"Why do I need to see paperwork from your attorney?"

"Because it is for you. I mean for us." I quickly changed.

"What is it?"

"Just come in my office and we will go over it. Then you can think about it while you finish unpacking."

"Okay." She huffed and followed me back into my office. I sat her down in the chair in front of my desk and handed her the paperwork. She read quietly for a while and then looked at me in shock. "This says I get half of what you are worth and that you are worth seventeen and a half million dollars."

"This is the prenup I promised you. In short if we get divorced you get half of what I have in assets and half my interest in RangeMan and at the time I asked him to draw up this paperwork that was an estimate of what I was worth. If I cheat on you, you get everything except one of my vehicles and a hundred thousand dollars. If you cheat on me and I decide to divorce you, you get everything you came into the marriage with and one million dollars."

"Why? Why would you set it up this way?"

"Because no matter what happens I want you to know you will never be destitute again. I will never leave you with nothing. You will never have to move back in with your parents and squeak by. We would never have a bitter drawn out divorce, the papers will be notarized and legally binding."

"So if you piss me off enough I just have to file these papers in court?" She asked.

"You will have a copy. I've even told my lawyer that if you come to him to file for divorce he has to represent you instead of me. If you want a divorce you will only need to file these papers in court with a reason. The only fight you will have from me is a fight to stay married. I'm not going to just let you divorce me, I will fight for you."

"Oh" That seemed to take the wind out of her sails.

"And the numbers on this prenup are no longer correct. Since Sergio I have a lot more money. You are going to be worth a lot more."

"Like how much?"

"Come here and sit on my lap so you can see my computer." I offered. "Babe I tried to make a deal with Sergio. I tried to get him to pay me off to go away and promise to leave my family alone."

"But it didn't work? He wouldn't pay you?"

"He was losing it mentally. He was no longer sane and he wanted me to pay him a hundred million dollars a year for the rest of my life, for him to remove the hits on my family and for him to continue to leave me and my family alone."

"That's crazy. Nobody would pay that." She said.

"It _was_ crazy. Like I said he was no longer with it. So I threatened to take him for everything he had if he didn't remove the hits and leave me and my family alone."

"and he didn't take it." she offered.

"No he didn't accept any deal I offered him and I offered him several different ones."

"So you took him for everything." She guessed.

"Yes I took him for everything and Babe he was a billionaire."

"Billion like with a B?"

"Billion with a B. Come around here Babe." I patted my lap.

She came around and I pulled up the RangeMan account that had one hundred million dollars in it. I had transfered one hundred million to the Rangeman business account to pay my families checks and to start the expansion.

"This is the account that I am going to use to pay my family and expand Rangeman. I am planning on three new branches in the next six months. I am going to pay Tank a sizable bonus and make him the General Manager over all of the offices."

Then I pulled up the account that had two hundred fifty million left in it.

"This is money I am going to give to Steve to invest. My men will get bonuses out of it and if needed I will use it to continue to expand more RangeMan offices. But honestly once the new offices open RangeMan should continue to be profitable enough to pay for continued expansions. It's just with this money we can buy new buildings outright to expand into."

Then I pulled up the account that had three billion eight hundred million dollars in it.

"Don't get too excited about the amount of money in here." I tried to explain. "When I bring it into the US half of it is going to disappear in taxes."

"Half of it." She repeated dumbfounded by the amount.

"Yes but that will still leave me with two billion dollars."

"And you're still going to work?"

"RangeMan is my company Babe. It provides an important service that people need and want and it creates jobs for ex-military men that might have trouble finding good jobs that utilize their skills. With this money we are going to be expanding across the country and we are going to have a lot of new positions open, especially in the field of customer relations."

"But I hate working in an office. I hate the clothes and the pantyhose. My job provides a useful service to the community. I get bad guys off the street." She defended.

"Yeah but you did it for the money. Babe if you had endless amounts of money what would you do?"

The End.

Kinda…

To be continued in the next story….

A/N: We have finally reached the end of this my first story. I would really like to hear what you think, what you liked and what I can improve upon. Thank you all for your kind word and support and encouragement through this story, they mean more than I can put into words. Your reviews have made me laugh and smile and write harder. Thank you for every one!

Overwhelmingly you wanted me to write a sequel and I have some great ideas in mind so I'm glad to do so. You've been such great readers and reviewers I want to give you a reward. For all my great reviewers here is the first chapter of the next story, currently called Saving Stephanie. Enjoy!

As always big THANK YOU to my beta Sassysaint I never could have done it without you!

Second Big THANK YOU to my sister, Jonelle. Thank you for fixing all my many little mistakes.


End file.
